Misinformation proliferates on social media like a plaque. Hundreds of posts and videos are solely designed to maximize their reach and spread fear amongst those who consume that media.
As baseless claims start reaching public discourse, we all need to be ready to quash them as soon as possible. Something we recently heard was the possibility the vaccines created to fight the coronavirus may cause a cancer.
While the term “Google University” is often derided because people can fall into rabbit holes of misinformation, factual and authoritative information exists and is readily accessible -- so long as you know where to look. The Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York debunks the claims the COVID-19 vaccines may cause cancer.
“None of the vaccines interact with or alter your DNA in any way, and therefore cannot cause cancer,” an article posted on the center’s website fact checking COVID-19 myths states. The center offers explanation about the difference in Messenger RNA (mRNA), the material used in creating COVID-19 vaccines, and DNA, the genetic code that is responsible for building and maintaining organisms, as well as how the vaccine’s mRNA breaks down after delivering the information to the body’s immune system without interacting with the DNA.
“... there is no truth to the myth that somehow the mRNA vaccine could inactivate the genes that suppress tumors,” the center’s research concludes.
Another common criticism is the fact the vaccine took such a short amount of time to develop and the mRNA vaccine itself is untested technology. According to a December 2020 Harvard Health Publishing blogpost titled “Why are mRNA vaccines so exciting” more than 30 years of research has gone into creating them, including ensuring how to modify mRNA to not cause an overreaction in the immune system.
Moderna and BioNTech/Pfizer have developed systems that could theoretically create a vaccine for any infectious disease by using the right mRNA for the disease.
Then, COVID-19 comes along and the two groups start working on vaccines after Chinese scientists published their study into the genetic structure of the coronavirus, including the spike protein needed for a vaccine.
Harvard Health Publishing reports that vaccines were ready for animal testing within weeks.
“Just 11 months after the discovery of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, regulators in the United Kingdom and the US confirmed that an mRNA vaccine for COVID-19 is effective and safely tolerated, paving the path to widespread immunization,” the post states. “Previously, no new vaccine had been developed in less than four years.”
We need to stop pretending there are serious problems with becoming vaccinated and we need to stop tolerating people who seek to politicize the issue. The only way this pandemic will really end is if everyone who can get vaccinated.
Otherwise, COVID-19 variants will continue to proliferate.
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