From infertility to magnetism, COVID-19 vaccine myths abound. Here’s how to respond.
With vaccination rates dropping in North Carolina, medical experts are concerned that not enough people are protected from COVID-19.
Currently, North Carolina sits at 54% of adults at least partially vaccinated, below the national average of 63%.
Nearly one out of every five North Carolinians say they won’t get the COVID-19 vaccine, according to an April poll from Elon University. Another 18% were unsure.
Dr. David Wohl, infectious disease expert at UNC, told The News & Observer that misinformation is contributing to vaccine hesitancy.
“There’s a lot of misinformation out there,” Wohl said. “I think that’s getting in the way.”
How do you respond when friends or family members say they won’t get a vaccine because of something they read or saw or heard? Here are a few common myths about the vaccine, and how to respond to them:
No effect on teen development or fertility
Since the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer was approved for emergency use in children 12 or older in May, some parents have expressed concern that the shot could harm teen hormone development and future fertility.
Experts say there is no evidence that the vaccine causes any developmental issues.
“People have been saying this about every vaccine since I can remember.” Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious Diseases, told CNN in May. “There is no evidence at this point that this vaccine will affect development or fertility.”
The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines do not contain a live coronavirus but instead mRNA, a molecule naturally found in the human body that teaches the immune system to create protective antibodies.
To affect teen development, the vaccine would need to alter human DNA, but it doesn’t.
The vaccine does not “interact with a person’s DNA or cause genetic changes because the mRNA does not enter the nucleus of the cell, which is where our DNA is kept,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC also says that there is no evidence that the vaccine causes fertility problems.
“There is no link between the COVID-19 vaccines and fertility — it’s an urban legend,” Dr. Stacy De-Lin, a gynecologist and family planning specialist in Florida, told ABC News.
Common side effects in children are the same as those found in adults — arm pain, fatigue, headache and joint pain.
Moderna’s clinical trials actually found the vaccine to be more effective, at 96%, in children age 12 to 17 than adults.
COVID-19 itself is much more dangerous for children than the vaccine. From March to April, teen COVID-19 hospitalization doubled nationwide.
As of Thursday, over 127,000 children have been infected with COVID-19 and three have died due to the virus in North Carolina, according to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.
Vaccine has no effect on your life insurance
False claims of COVID-19 vaccination affecting life insurance benefits have circulated among social media platforms over the past few weeks.
But experts say it doesn’t affect a policyholder’s life insurance.
“Life insurance policy contracts are very clear on how policies work, and what cause, if any, might lead to the denial of a benefit. A vaccine for COVID-19 is not one of them,” Paul Graham, senior vice president of policy development at the American Council of Life Insurers, said in a March 12 statement.
The vaccine would actually help limit life insurance premium increases, W. Bruce Vogel, an associate professor in the Division of Health Outcomes and Implementation Science at the University of Florida, told the Associated Press in March.
“Only if the vaccine itself increased mortality would you expect it to increase life insurance premiums, and there is no evidence of that so far,” Vogel said.
Yes, you should still get vaccinated after a COVID-19 infection
Vaccination is better and safer than immunity from natural infection, experts say.
“It appears the vaccine-induced immunity is more robust than that generated from natural infection — and I wouldn’t consider them equivalent — but natural immunity is certainly not insignificant,” Dr. Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told McClatchy News in May.
Studies show that protective antibodies gained from natural infection can last at least three months or up to eight months. Other evidence suggests it could last for years.
But the CDC says the risk of reinfection “may increase with time due to waning immunity.”
Vaccines, though, offer predictable and measurable protection.
A CDC study from March showed that risk of infection after vaccination dropped by 80% after one dose and by 90% after the second and final one.
Among the over 1 million people who have been infected with COVID-19 in North Carolina, over 13,200 have died, according to the latest DHHS data.
No, the vaccine doesn’t turn you into a magnet
Conspiratorial online videos over the last few weeks claim that coins and magnets are sticking to people’s arms at the site of the vaccine injection.
This is derived from a conspiracy theory that there is a microchip in the vaccine that the government is using to track Americans.
The reality is that nothing of this nature is in the vaccine, and it doesn’t have any metals in it either.
“No. Receiving a COVID-19 vaccine will not make you magnetic, including at the site of vaccination which is usually your arm,” the CDC said in a statement in May.
The natural oils and moisture on people’s skin is most likely why magnets appear to be sticking to the skin.
And U.S. coins — a common object used to “prove” the COVID-19 vaccines have microchips in them — aren’t even magnetic.