Common anti-vax and coronavirus conspiracy theories debunked by experts

Matt Hancock this week voiced his frustration that some people are still not getting the coronavirus vaccine, amid fears of the spread of the new Indian variant.

The Health Secretary said there were now 2,323 confirmed cases of the Indian variant in the UK, of which 483 were in Bolton and in Blackburn with Darwen.

The majority of people admitted to hospital in Bolton, which has seen the biggest outbreak of B1.617.2 variant, had been eligible for the jab but had not taken it up.

In a Commons statement, Mr Hancock said vaccinations and testing had been “surged” across both areas as he announced the jab would be offered to 36 and 37-year-olds from this week.

“The majority have not been vaccinated and, of them, most of them could have been vaccinated, which is frustrating to see, but is also a message to everyone,” Mr Hancock told MPs.

“It just reinforces the message that people should come forward and get vaccinated because that is the best way to protect everybody.”

Yesterday (May 17) marked the third step of the roadmap with pubs and restaurants welcoming back customers indoors while cinemas, theatres and indoor leisure venues were given the green light to reopen.

Government data up to May 16 shows that of the 56,992,075 jabs given in the UK so far, 36,704,672 were first doses – a rise of 131,318 on the previous day. Some 20,287,403 were second doses, an increase of 183,745.

More importantly, almost everyone in the most at risk categories are included in this number meaning any infections that do spread are less likely to cause severe illness.

However, the vaccination programme is nowhere near over yet, and the spread of the new Indian variant is causing concern.

So it is vital that vaccine uptake remains high to prevent any resurgence in the disease that has claimed more than 151,000 lives across the UK since the start of the pandemic, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

In recent weeks misinformation and conspiracy theories over vaccines and the coronavirus itself have spread, and the reaction among certain sections of the public was predictable.

Our sister title the ECHO looked at some of the unfounded claims that may make people think twice about getting the jab.

1. It is not safe

In what was undoubtedly a dispiriting piece of news, after a wave of positive headlines, was the link between the Astrazeneca/Oxford jab and a rare but serious type of blood clot called Cerebral Venous Thrombosis (CVT).

Many people were understandably worried as some Governments announced they were pausing the rollout and urgent investigation was underway.

But it has since emerged that the chances of dying from a blood clot are vanishingly slim – around one in a million – while the chances of developing the clot at all are around 10 in a million – according to data from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

Scientists have also been keen to stress that covid can also cause CVT – and in fact your chances of developing CVT after being infected are between eight to 10 times higher than they are after receiving the vaccine.

The balance of risks are different for younger people, who are less likely to become seriously ill with covid, but the government has announced alternatives to the Astrazeneca jab will now be offered to under 40s.

Data from a Public Health England (PHE) study shows that vaccines are already having a significant impact in the UK, reducing hospitalisations and deaths, saving an estimated 11,700 lives and preventing 33,000 hospitalisations in England by the end of April.

PHE analysis revealed last week showed that people who receive a single dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine have an approximately 80% lower risk of death with covid compared with unvaccinated individuals.

The report also shows protection against death from the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine rises from approximately 80% after one dose to 97% after two doses.

2. Why should I take a vaccine when covid risks are low?

One common slogan among the anti-vaccine crowd is that there is no need to take a vaccine for a disease with a “99.7% recovery rate”.

However, statistics from the ONS suggest this figure is inaccurate.

According to data from the REACT 2 study in June last year, the death rate in the population as a whole was around 0.9%, meaning roughly one person in every 100 infected with covid will die.

And of course that rate changes for at risk groups including the elderly and those with certain underlying conditions.

Another consideration is the word “recover”.

A recent study from the ONS suggested that at around 1.1million people in the UK suffered the effects of so-called long covid in February this year alone.

The symptoms can be crippling, with symptoms listed on the NHS website including extreme fatigue, problems with memory and concentration (brain fog), joint pain, shortness of breath, depression and anxiety and more.

3. It’s no worse than flu

This one is common and has been addressed many times – but continually rears it head.

And one of the main reasons for this incorrect conclusion is the fact that flu rates have dramatically dropped since the beginning of the pandemic.

This has led some people to believe that all the “missing” flu cases are being misdiagnosed as covid.

However, as any qualified medic will attest, this is simply nonsense.

Dr Richard Wenstone, a consultant intensivist at the Royal Liverpool Hospital, described suggestions that a large number of flu cases were being mistaken for covid as “utter b******s”.

He added: “They’re different viruses, they show up differently on lab tests for viruses, they don’t have exactly the same symptoms, they do different things to the body, and we use different treatments.”

The reality is while flu can and does cause significant problems for the NHS in the winter season, its mortality rate is considerably less than Covid-19 – according to the World Health Organization and the NHS.

During the pandemic there have been unprecedented measures to prevent the spread of respiratory viruses than ever before including mass travel bans, lockdowns, social distancing and the sealing off of care homes – which will have massively impacted the spread of flu

Covid, however, is a novel virus and attacked a population with no natural immunity. and until a few months ago there was no vaccine available unlike flue.

In a press conference last year the Chief Medical Officer, Professor Chris Whitty, said on average, the annual death toll from flu is around 7-8,000 people – rising to in the region of 20,000 if there is a particularly bad flu season.

In contrast, more than 150,000 people have died from covid since March 2020.

Professor William Hope, director of the city’s Centre of Excellence in Infectious Diseases Research (CEIDR) and also holder of the Dame Sally Davies chair of Antimicrobial Resistance at the University of Liverpool, previously told the ECHO: “I don’t think there can be any doubt at the moment that coronavirus is much more dangerous.

“It is a new virus and we have already seen the death rate is higher than an ordinary flu season.

“It has a high transmissibility and even a small mortality rate results in a lot of death.”

4. Covid vaccines are “experimental” and “skipped trials” before approval

It is understandable that many people had questions about how quickly vaccines were approved compared to the usual years of trials.

But those questions have been comprehensively answered by scientists and independent regulators.

Contrary to disinformation spreading on social media, no covid vaccine approved for use in the UK has skipped any stage of trials, including animal trials.

According to Reuters, the Pfizer/BioNTech jab, the first one to win emergency approval in the UK, underwent Phase 3 trials involving 46,331 participants at 153 sites across the world – and the results are here.

The Oxford/Astrazeneca vaccine trials involved 23,848 people across the UK, Brazil, and South Africa between April and November 2020, according to a report published by the Oxford Vaccine Group.

Both vaccines underwent trials in animals in multiple countries.

Claims have also been made about the technology behind the vaccines, including that they interfere with human DNA.

This is false.

The Astrazeneca vaccine uses so called viral vector technology – using weakened adenovirus cells to train the body’s immune system to attack coronavirus spikes.

This type of vaccine has been used to fight ebola, and in studies attempting to develop vaccines for other diseases.

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines use mRNA technology, which takes a part of the coronavirus DNA to train the immune system to attack the real virus.

They are the first vaccines using this method to be administered to humans, but the technology has been studied and tested for years.

5. Vaccines can ‘shed’ from immunised people to others

Among the more bizarre theories swirling round certain corners of social media is that vaccinated people can “shed” to non-vaccinated people, and cause fertility problems in women.

This is completely untrue.

As stated above the vaccine trains the immune system to produce antibodies, and cannot shed to other people.

Professor Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, told fact checking organisation Full Fact: “I can’t think of any biologically plausible mechanism for shedding of components of any of the licensed Covid-19 vaccines after immunisation.”

Why the vaccine is still important

The vaccination programme will only prevent spiralling covid infections if it is taken by the vast majority of people.

No vaccine is 100% effective, and there will always be those who refuse to take it or cannot for medical reasons.

The vaccine is not just a way of protecting yourself, but a way of passing the virus on to others, which is why it is essential for low risk groups to get the jab.

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