Vaccines are safe. Don’t let fear and misinformation mislead you. | Opinion
In 2018, on the island of Samoa, a nurse made a terrible mistake and used the wrong vial to mix what was intended to be a vaccine. It was given to two young children. Both died.
Fear and misinformation then spread rapidly on this small island of 200,000 people, accelerated by anti-vax propogandists. Rates of children’s vaccinations plummeted, leading to two-thirds of Samoa’s babies going unvaccinated. Then in 2019 and 2020 a measles outbreak swept the country, sickening thousands and killing 83, mostly small children.
In the U.S. and elsewhere, vaccine misinformation and disinformation have accelerated, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic.
I’ve heard passionate arguments that vaccines, and masks during a pandemic, restrict our personal freedom. The opposite is true. Vaccines provide the greatest freedom in the history of the world — freedom from many communicable diseases that once terrorized, sickened and killed millions.
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Misinformation sows confusion about how vaccines work. Vaccines don’t wrap you in a plastic bubble so no virus can enter your body. They prepare your body’s defenses to immediately attack the virus and minimize the damage if you’re exposed. Misinformation can sow distrust by questioning how one could test positive for COVID after getting the vaccine. If the virus is still circulating, and you breathe it in, you may test positive. But your body is prepared if you have been vaccinated.
When about 90% of people get vaccinated against a virus, it leads to “herd immunity.” The virus runs out of hosts and no longer spreads through communities. We get vaccinated not only to protect ourselves, but to also protect everyone else, particularly the young, the old, the weak and those who have health complications.
To date, 82% of Americans have had at least one COVID shot. Worldwide, it’s about 67%, totaling almost 14 billion shots. Yet some disinformation contends the vaccine doesn’t work. As if it was a magical coincidence that we got the virus under control as the vaccines rolled out. Disinformation rewrites reality, saying COVID wasn’t that serious. Somehow ignoring that more than 1.2 million Americans died, more than died fighting all our wars combined, including the Civil War.
Disinformation pushes the narrative that the COVID vaccine was rushed and not properly tested. In fact, the FDA’s administrative process was dramatically streamlined, but the science was not. All studies and tests were similar to what any vaccine must do before FDA approval. For submissions of routine new drug applications, the entire massive file ― all preclinical and clinical studies, manufacturing, stability, etc. ― must be completed before the FDA even opens the file. But for the COVID vaccine, FDA reviewers tackled each study as it was completed, dramatically speeding a safe and effective vaccine, without compromising scientific integrity, for a pandemic that was raging. And we emerged from our nightmare.
After approval, all drugs and vaccines are monitored extensively for safety, efficacy and signs of side effects not previously detected. A key issue is correlation vs. causation. For example, you might get vaccinated, and then your back pain goes away or you have a heart attack. That doesn’t necessarily mean the vaccine cures back pain or causes heart attacks, they may have just happened about the same time.
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Sophisticated statistical, scientific and medical methods, studying large numbers of people over time, help determine the truth. The question is: what is the risk compared to the benefit? With a multi-year experience now of 14 billion doses around the world, the risk-benefit of the COVID vaccine looks to be excellent.
Misinformation and disinformation are growing, accelerated by some relentless anti-vax activists attacking all vaccines ― smallpox, polio, mumps, measles, rubella, tetanus, pertussis, etc. Actual science is slower and less attention-grabbing. For example, multiple long-term, massive studies have shown no relationship between vaccines and autism. Yet that claim persists.
It would be devasting for this trend to lead to the loss of the greatest freedom ever enjoyed in the history of the world. But it could happen. Ask the people of Samoa.
Ron Stratton attended Oklahoma public schools. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma and completed a Ph.D. in Biological Psychology from the OU Health Sciences Center. He had a scientific and business career that spanned two continents and included developing new drugs for epilepsy, neuropathic pain, Parkinson’s disease, and others. He is now retired.
