Dear Editor,
Following my letter in this newspaper on January 2, post commentary and questions from people, I realised that in addition to serious misconceptions about vaccines there are basic concepts that many people just don’t understand so I wish to make the following points with hope of clarification:
1. What does it mean to be infected with the Coronavirus?
SARS-CoV-2, is just a piece of genetic material wrapped up in protein and fat and altogether this is called a virus particle. By itself, on a surface, this particle can’t do anything but when it gets into humans it hijacks our machinery, introduces its genetic material into our cells using them to make hundreds of thousands of copies of itself. These new virus particles are then released from our cells, oftentimes killing them, then go on to infect other cells and continue the cycle. This process is called an infection (the virus using our bodies to multiply itself) and this is what causes illness. Note, it is the virus’s genetic material that makes it infectious.
2. What is an immune response?
An immune response is your body’s reaction to a foreign invader. This includes making defense molecules called antibodies which can neutralize the virus. We can view our immune system as a military that needs to be trained which we do with vaccines. Antibodies and other molecules involved in defending our bodies can be viewed as soldiers and equipment used in the fight against virus particle invaders. Of course, our immune systems are different and the strength of the response may vary for example with age or in the immunocompromised.
3. What is a vaccine?
A vaccine tricks your body into generating an immune response similar to that which you would get with a virus but does not give you the disease. It trains our immune system to respond to foreign invaders like viruses. You can’t get COVID-19 from a vaccine because vaccines lack the infectious genetic material that the virus has. So, with vaccines, you are able to build up immunity without infection allowing you to be prepared to fight the virus off, if infected.
4. How do we know there is an immune response and we have immunity?
A common way is to test for neutralizing antibodies in the blood. One way to determine how long immunity lasts after vaccination is to measure levels of these antibodies over time. There are even at-home serology tests that allow you to do your own blood test to check for the protective antibodies as an indication that you have had an immune response.
5. What is the difference between the words ‘immunity’ and ‘infection’?
There is a serious misunderstanding when it comes to these words and I think it stems from English colloquial usage, not that this type of speech is a problem, but it cannot be extended to scientific language so we must be careful in its usage or misinformation will be spread.
Immunity means you are able to resist the disease because of defenses your body has built up, such as having antibodies to neutralize the virus. Please do not confuse it with infection. Developing immunity does not mean you are exempt from infection. Immunity can lessen over time. This is something that scientists are still trying to figure out about current vaccines – how long immunity lasts after vaccination. We know it last six months to a year after vaccination but we don’t know if it lasts longer. This is where booster shots come in to give us a boost after immunity wanes.
6. It’s my choice to get vaccinated, not anyone else’s decision. Why should I get vaccinated?
You are protecting yourself from severe illness, hospitalisation and death from COVID-19 infection. The evidence for this is data coming out of countries leading the vaccination campaign (UK, Israel, US, Canada). You are contributing to community immunity; remember we need a large proportion of the population vaccinated (and immunised) to suppress virus spread and get out of the pandemic. Very importantly you are helping to prevent a situation developing that could overwhelm the hospitals. Can you imagine if what happened in India or Brazil happens in Guyana? Would the health care system hold up? Many in Brazil thought they were fine without getting the vaccine too but then a new more contagious variant emerged, people who had COVID-19 were re-infected. So, your choice to not get vaccinated doesn’t help you, others, health care workers or the health care system. You are just helping to prolong the pandemic.
7. What about associated blood clots risks?
The risk of getting a blood clot from a vaccine in incredibly rare despite sensational media headlines. Getting a blood clot from COVID-19 itself is ~1% while the risk from the Oxford-AstraZeneca and J&J vaccines is 0.004% and less than 0.001% respectively. For context, women who take the contraceptive pill have a 0.1% chance of getting a blood clot, the painkillers we consume on a regular basis also have greater blood clot risks compared to vaccines (check the packaging and labels) and the normal risk (without a vaccine) is 0.1%. Note with mRNA vaccines (Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna) there is a 0.002% risk of developing a severe allergic reaction. With everything there is risk so we need to make sure we put it into context with other regular things that we do (without thinking about them).
8. Do vaccines cause infertility or impotence?
The first approved vaccine (went through all phases of clinical trials) was given on Dec. 8 2020 with just over 2 billion doses administered to date with no evidence to show they cause infertility or impotence.
9. If I’m COVID-19 positive, asymptomatic and take the vaccine, will I die?
NO!
Finally, get vaccinated (if you haven’t as yet) and get the second dose if you only had the first (except if it’s the one-shot J&J) as you need both to get the best protection offered by the vaccine and protection against variants of concern!
Sincerely,
Jacquelyn Jhingree, PhD.
