INTRODUCTION:
Most of my summer has consisted of spending an obscene amount of time on Tik-Tok and Instagram, two powerful and addictive social media platforms with carefully crafted algorithms that optimize and streamline information that the viewer wants to see, that the viewer will like, and that the viewer will agree with. They are massively accessible propellers of cognitive bias, making it much easier for others to only pay attention to information accurate or inaccurate, that confirms their personal beliefs. The fundamental design of these virtual environments allows users to interpret videos or comments as confirmation of their own existing beliefs.
After the University of Maryland announced an indoor mask mandate, I came across a Tik-Tok video of an incoming college freshman justifiably expressing her frustration with those either hesitant or completely against receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. I opened the comments, fully expecting mostly mutual agreement amongst my peers. Instead, I was brutally blindsided by the anger, disagreement, and distrust disguised as ignorance from kids, children, teenagers, and young adolescents-the same age groups that are being more significantly affected by the Delta and Omicron variant.
Soon enough, I stumbled across a propaganda virtual cascade of anti-vax videos, with claimed “experts” preaching how the COVID-19 vaccine was both ineffective and unsafe, how the science was new and thus wrong, how vaccine and mask enforcements are a government conspiracy to take away personal choice, and how masks are no longer necessary once vaccinated.
At that point, I turned off my phone and just stared at my wall. So many people have died. So many lives had been lost and will continue to be lost not only from this infectious killer virus but from the insensitivity and denial of the virus from powerful authority figures, from the politicization of factual science, from poor social distancing and masking practices, and from this anti-vax propaganda. This excruciating pain and trauma that has been collectively experienced over the past year and a half would continue to extend, perpetually and indefinitely, as newer, contagious variants begin to emerge, like the Delta and Omicron variant.
Maybe, and most likely, refuting some of these inaccurate and falsified arguments will do very little to fundamentally change fixated anti-vaccine mindsets. Even though I’m highly unlikely to be the credible source you may be looking for, I tried my best to break down the confusing jargon and analogize the loaded information found in scientifically backed articles and journals into much simpler terms. It is not easy to question beliefs and values that probably mean a lot to each of you, or the hesitancy associated with injecting something unfamiliar, but I urge you to keep reading and give it a shot to learn something new and critically challenge yourself.
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Argument #1 against taking the vaccine: The science has been out for only a couple of months. It’s still too new. Some people have reacted extremely badly after vaccine administration. In addition to these dangerous short-term effects, no one knows the long-term side effects that the vaccine may induce, like fertility issues, future heart problems, fevers, and shakes. Most of the vaccines aren’t even FDA approved. I want to wait and see what happens in the long run.
Response: The science behind vaccinations for infectious diseases has actually been around for about thirty years now and this is how it works:
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Your immune system absolutely despises anything that is foreign in your body- a bacteria, a protein, a virus, or anything that it simply cannot recognize.
Think of your immune system as your home and the foreign entity as an army trying to invade a kingdom, and you’re the king or queen. When the army is trying to break in, you’re probably going to be like “screw you back” and attack back.
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As your immune system is fighting the virus, it needs time to think. How can it best defeat the virus? What parts should it kill? What cells does it need to create to send to attack those parts? As your immune system is building its defense, the virus is replicating throughout the body.
As your strategizing your military plan of defense and attack, the invaders are slowly taking over your kingdom and becoming a more prominent presence. They seem to have this extraordinary weapon spray that freezes your soldiers and citizens upon contact.
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After the immune system is successful in getting rid of the virus, it has memory cells that remember the various components of the virus. If the virus comes back to re-infect someone, your body will simply employ the same mechanisms of defense and attack to destroy the virus before it can make you sick again.
You, the leader of the kingdom, are furious that some army tried to invade your kingdom. You, your soldiers, and the people you reign over vow to never forget and be much more prepared for another sign of invasion from that same attacking army. You promise the opposing army retaliation.
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During the making of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, scientists confirmed that there was a spike protein on the outside of the virus, coated in sugar molecules, that disguise the virus from the immune system attacking. The sugar molecules aren’t seen as foreign. This same protein that helps hide the virus is actually also used to help the virus anchor onto cells so that the virus’ genetic material can get into the cells. Simply put, this protein is a first class jerk that makes the virus more infectious. Scientists were like “hey, could I mess with this spike protein? Could I manipulate it to somehow elicit an immune attack?”
Your military advisors get a hand of the disastrous freezing spray weapon used by the opposing army during the invasion. It helped the attacking army immobilize everyone in their way to assist with their invasion!
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All viruses have genetic material- either RNA or DNA so that they can replicate that genetic material in other cells and spread throughout the body. Scientists were interested in that pesky little spike protein and were trying to see how they could mess with it, so they looked at the portion of DNA that coded for that spike protein. This part of the DNA can be transcribed into mRNA, or specific instructions on how to make the spike protein. (Spoiler: these instructions are the vaccine!).
You have sent your spies into the invader’s military camp, and they were able to retrieve the recipe for the freezing spray. You evilly smile.
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The vaccine does not contain the COVID-19 virus! It just contains the recipe for making that annoying spike protein! Once injected, your cells get a copy of this recipe and say “New recipe. Let’s make it.” Your cells are programmed to make proteins according to the instructions in the mRNA.
You and your military advisors start to produce this freezing spray according to the instructions on the recipe. Finally, you and your advisors have produced it!
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Okay, great. The spike protein (not the actual viral COVID-19 genetic material capable of inducing infection and replicating!) is in our body. Remember your immune system does NOT like foreign things. At all. It immediately labels the pretentious and stuck-up spike protein as foreign and starts attacking it. If not previously infected, this is the first time the body is seeing the spike protein. Like stated before, the immune system is smart, and takes time to strategize how to go psycho crazy on this spike protein. The side effects of the vaccine- the muscle soreness, the shivering, the fevers- are how you know your immune system is attacking the crap out of that spike protein. It wants it destroyed. Gone.
You test the experimental freezing spray out on yourself and quickly realize this isn’t the full recipe. It seems like your spies only found a key part but not the entire recipe for the spray that actually causes the freezing. You start to feel slightly sick, but you are not completely immobilized (like the freezing spray was meant to induce). Fortunately, you recover.
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What happens to the mRNA coding for the spike protein? Your body says, “sayonara buddy” and breaks it down into harmless pieces by normal bodily processes. There’s no need to have those mRNA instructions around-it’s served its purpose.
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Recap: The spike protein mRNA has just been broken down by normal bodily processes and the immune system attacked the spike protein created from that mRNA and effectively destroyed it all. So then, what’s the point of doing all that if there’s nothing left? Here’s the golden key: your immune system has memory cells that remember that spike protein. How could they forget that pretentious, stuck-up, obnoxious, jerk-ish thing? So if a COVID-19 virus, which has the spike protein outside of it, were to attack, the immune system is ready to bomb the crap out of it because it recognizes that spike protein AGAIN. It literally says, “What the heck is it doing here again?” It’s ready to destroy the virus once and for all before its viral genetic material replicates into other cells and spreads throughout the body.
The enemy army attack again after their failed invasion and you have no idea how to defend your kingdom. They capture you and spray you with the freezing spray to immobilize you- but guess what happens? It doesn’t work! Your body became immune to the actual freezing spray when you sprayed yourself with that harmless, key part of the freezing spray that you were able to make from only a small part of the entire recipe. You realize that you had initially felt sick because your body was taking time to figure out a game plan and preparing for the most effective way to stop it. When the freezing spray entered your skin again during your capture, your body remembered what it did to stop it the first time and prevented it from completely immobilizing you!
Hopefully, reading about the mechanism of the mRNA vaccine helped mitigate concern for the long-term effects. No viral COVID-19 genetic material actually gets injected into the body but rather just the instructions for making a protein surrounding the virus and the mRNA for the spike protein degrades by normal bodily processes. All in all, no remnants or components of the virus remains in your body except the memory of how your immune system fought the virus off so it can use those same tactics if the virus tries to infect you again!
It is true that some have reacted badly to the vaccine due to an allergic reaction. Such allergic reactions can cause anaphylaxis, or the constriction of the airways, which can lead to difficulty breathing. This must be treated with epinephrine in order to ensure that the airways remain open. It is extremely, extremely important to note that this is incredibly rare. On average, there are 2.5 cases per 1 million doses of the Moderna vaccine and 4.7 cases per 1 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine. Any other symptoms like pain, fatigue, headache, muscle pain, or joint pain are just a sign that the immune system is responding properly as described above, not that the vaccine is unsafe!
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Argument #2 against taking the vaccine: All of the data and results are constantly changing-vaccinated people are still getting breakthrough COVID-19 infections, specifically with the Delta and Omicron variant, thereby making the vaccine seem ineffective and absolutely pointless.
Response: Remember that obnoxious little spike protein again! Yeah, that one. With the Delta and Omicron variant, there were multiple mutations, or changes in the structure of the spike protein that improved its ability to attach onto cells to begin the infection process (aka transfer the viral COVID-19 genetic material and begin replicating). Basically, it made the spike protein more obnoxious, more annoying, and essentially more of a jerk because it helps the virus be even more effective.
So let’s ponder on that for a bit. Vaccines help the immune system develop ways to destroy the virus so that if it were to reappear in the body again, the correct antibodies specifically constructed for that virus can bind to the reappearing virus particles and destroy them! Easy!
However, the more the spike proteins mutates and changes shape, the less perfectly those antibodies will bind to destroy the virus, so the less effective the immune system will be at destroying the mutated virus. It definitely does not help that the Delta variant seems to replicate in amounts that are 1000 times greater than those seen in people infected by other variants. Or that Omicron is 3 times as likely to cause an infection as Delta is given that it has a distinctive combination of more than 50 mutations.
That high amount of virus can potentially bypass the initial immune defense that even vaccinated individuals have developed. This means that that those infected with the Delta and Omicron variant are more likely to be hospitalized than patients with the alpha or original COVID-19 strain. Therefore, Delta and Omicron are more infections and consequently more transmissible by both unvaccinated and vaccinated individuals. Omicron is of significant concern. Even with antibodies present, Omicron still manages to enter the cells, meaning that the mutations that Omicron causes are significantly changing the shape of those jerk spike proteins where antibodies bind onto the virus to disable the virus. Already, there has been a rapid rise in COVID cases and hospitalizations, even amongst those that are vaccinated. similar to the rate of cases seen before the vaccine was widely available.
Moral of the story: Omicron is not playing around, but this does not render the vaccine useless. Two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine along with the booster shot is the most effective mechanism to prevent hospitalization from Omicron, although not as strong as against Delta. Even if Omicron efficiently evades antibodies, T cells produced by the vaccine still recognize the Omicron variant, making it harder for Omicron to cause serious damage. Unlike antibodies, T cells are less affected by mutational differences of the virus and are thus less affected by variants. Therefore, those who are vaccinated are infected for a shorter period of time because the immune system (the corresponding antibodies and T cell response) can suppress and attack more easily and effectively.
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Argument #3 against taking the vaccine: “My body, my choice. The vaccine should not be mandated by the government.
The phrase “My body, my choice” applies when looking at your own individual health choices, hence the word “my”. In the context of reproductive rights, choice has valid meaning because this choice does not physically affect the lives of others and only concerns the person seeking or resisting an abortion.
However, in the context of the pandemic, it is not just “my body” but the body of anybody that comes into contact with you, including parents, older relatives, and invisible immunocompromised strangers. Not taking the vaccine and booster not only affects you, but those around you while simultaneously draining hospital and public health resources.
Manipulating this reproductive rights slogan is a poor and hypocritical excuse for avoiding vaccination and deferring the responsibility of infecting others with a deathly virus. Choosing not to be vaccinated and boosted when they are proven to be safe and effective has major implications for the health of others, especially for those who are immunocompromised and unable to get the vaccine themselves. Choosing not to be vaccinated is an uninformed, futile, and selfish choice. Analogous to the government regulation ensuring the illegality of drinking and driving, mandating the vaccine will eliminate preventable deaths and save lives for the collective good.
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CLOSING:
By not taking the necessary preventative precautions, you may be signing the death sentence of yourself and your loved ones. This also applies to those who are vaccinated but choose not to wear a mask. Even if you are fully vaccinated, you can still carry high viral loads and transmit the virus, potentially leading to a breakthrough infection amongst yourself and others without wearing a mask.
If you are still worried about the long-term effects of the mRNA vaccine, it really comes down to choosing if you would want to risk the hypothetical, conjectural, and unproven so-called-long-term-effects from the vaccine or a permanent death from COVID-19. To that, I say that the sickest patients almost universally regret not having been vaccinated against the virus:
“Now, knowing what I do, I would get the shot.”
“I could have saved myself and my family so much by having gotten the vaccine.”
“Thought I had time.”
“We just wanted to wait a year from when it started to be…just to watch and see what people’s reactions were to it. We didn’t think a year would matter.”
“To those of you that are hesitating and think, it can’t happen to me because I’m young and’- it can.”
“I should have gotten the damn vaccine.”
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BIBLIOGRAPHY:
