COVID-19 Vaccine Myths Debunked

While most people consider the COVID-19 vaccine production a cause for celebration, there are some people who still have doubts and lingering worries about the vaccine’s safety, efficacy, and necessity. You’ve likely heard a lot of everything about the COVID-19 vaccines and booster shots, but which of them should you believe? In this article, we’ll set the record straight on some of the circulating myths about the COVID-19 vaccines for you. 

Myth #1: The implant has a microchip (“tracker”) in it.

This myth started circulating after American software developer, Bill Gates, made a comment about something that he thinks could happen in the future – digital certificates. They are sort of like digital tattoos that are given to people after they get vaccinated or tested for COVID-19. But Gate’s idea has nothing to do with the vaccines themselves, which obviously do not contain any digital technology. So there are no microchips in any of the vaccines and the vaccines do not track people or gather their personal information.

Myth #2: Vaccines contain the coronavirus so you can get COVID-19

Nothing can be further from the truth. None of the vaccines contain the coronavirus, so it is impossible to get COVID-19 from them. What they do contain are water (mainly), mRNA, stabilizers (eg sugar and gelatin) to keep the vaccine effective after manufactured, and adjuvant (eg aluminum salts) to help boost your body’s response to the vaccine. The mRNA acts as a messenger to instruct your body cells to produce proteins that are part of the coronavirus and your immune system in response, recognizes it, and produces antibodies to fight it. 

Myth #3: COVID-19 vaccines can alter or re-write your DNA

Vaccines like Pfizer contain messenger RNA (mRNA). Biologically, our DNA is used to make mRNA while the mRNA is used to make proteins in our body. The process only goes in one direction, so mRNA cannot actually reverse the process and affect your DNA. In fact, the mRNA in vaccines does not even get to the nucleus. Instead, the mRNA in COVID-19 vaccines only instructs your body to produce a protein called the “spike protein”. This spike protein fools your body into thinking it’s seeing the coronavirus. Your immune system in return reacts by making antibodies to these spike proteins. So if you do encounter a real coronavirus in the future, your body will be ready to fight it off.