AstraZeneca

COVID-19 vaccine facts and debunking myths — the semi-complete list

by Michael Simpson
2022-11-27
AstraZeneca, COVID-19, JNJ, Moderna, Novavax, Pfizer, Pinned, Vaccines

There are so many myths about the COVID-19 vaccine, I wanted to post some facts about the new vaccines which we can use for debunking purposes. I used to think that the HPV vaccine brought the most hatred and misinformation from the anti-vaccine world, but it’s clear that the new COVID-19 vaccines are their new targets.

This article will only focus on the five vaccines that I believe will eventually receive FDA or European Medicines Agency (EMA) approval – Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson (JNJ Janssen), and Novavax vaccines. I remain unconvinced that any vaccine made in China or the Russian Sputnik V vaccine will ever get approved by countries with robust drug regulatory agencies. However, if they are, I will certainly add them to a future iteration of this list.

I’m going to make this in a basic chart form for ease of use in finding COVID-19 vaccine facts and myths. I will link to supporting evidence wherever relevant.

COVID vaccines are not responsible for mysterious hepatitis outbreak

by Michael Simpson
2022-05-31
AstraZeneca, COVID-19, COVID-19 vaccine, Infectious disease, JNJ

An outbreak of hepatitis of unknown etiology in children across the world is not caused by COVID-19 vaccines. Of course, anti-vaxxers are trying to use this hepatitis outbreak as more fear, uncertainty, and doubt about the COVID-19 vaccines, but the evidence doesn’t support it.

As of this time, we don’t know a lot about this hepatitis outbreak, like routes of infection and the causative agent, but it is ringing the alarm bells at various public health agencies across the world.

In this article, I will walk you through the hepatitis outbreak and then some limited data that appear to show that there is no link to either COVID-19 or COVID-19 vaccines.

Monkeypox myths — debunking anti-vaccine claims about the virus

by Michael Simpson
2022-05-29
AstraZeneca, COVID-19 vaccine, Del Bigtree, Vaccines

Within nanoseconds of monkeypox hitting the news, the anti-vaccine activists were pushing myths in force employing their unique brand of conspiracy theories and bad science. Like they did with COVID-19 vaccines, the anti-vaxxers have jumped on monkeypox with all kinds of crackpot ideas and myths that deserve debunking.

As is my policy, I’m not going to point you to any of the crazy websites with these monkeypox myths — I’m not going to send them any traffic. I’m sure I’m missing some good ones, but here’s what I’ve seen.

COVID vaccine booster effectiveness may wane quickly against Omicron

by Michael Simpson
2021-12-29
AstraZeneca, COVID-19, Moderna, Pfizer, Vaccines

This pandemic just doesn’t give us much good news — research from the UK indicates that COVID-19 vaccine booster effectiveness may wane significantly at the 10-week mark post-vaccination. This may allow the Omicron variant to spread much further than originally hoped.

Before I explain the research, I want to make a few things very clear. First, this doesn’t mean the vaccine is ineffective, it is just that the immunity appears to wane more quickly than other vaccines. Second, this doesn’t mean that the vaccines are worthless — hospitalization and, more importantly, death rates are much lower in the vaccinated group. And finally, this is how science works — we accumulate data and then, after reviewing the data, change recommendations.

Let’s take a look at this new research and determine what it may mean for future vaccination efforts.

Two studies show that COVID vaccines are safe during pregnancy

by Michael Simpson
2021-10-28
AstraZeneca, COVID-19, Moderna, Pfizer, Pregnancy, Vaccines

I know that I’ve been written a lot about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines during pregnancy and how dangerous COVID-19 is to pregnant women. But it is important that we remind everyone that these COVID-19 vaccines are safe during pregnancy, and two new studies reiterate that.

Unfortunately, the COVID-19 vaccination rate amongst pregnant women still lags other groups – 25% of mothers-to-be have gotten one during their pregnancy. Rates are even lower for Latina and Black expectant mothers, at 22% and 15%, respectively, compared with 27% of white and 35% of expectant mothers. Given the dangers of COVID-19 to pregnant women and the developing fetus, these are frightening low numbers.

Let’s take a look at these studies that confirm the safety profile of these COVID-19 vaccines during pregnancy.

Greater incidence of neurological issues from COVID-19 than vaccines

by Michael Simpson
2021-10-26
AstraZeneca, COVID-19, Neurological, Pfizer, Vaccines

A new study published in a peer-reviewed journal shows that there is a greater risk of neurological complications from COVID-19 compared to vaccines. Once again, we have actual medical science data showing that the COVID-19 vaccines are much safer than the disease.

The overall safety of the COVID-19 vaccines has been established in numerous articles. After several billion doses given, there are so few safety signals, and those are generally minor and extremely rare.

This newly published article examines the risk of neurological issues between vaccinated individuals and those who contract COVID-19. And once again, we see that the COVID-19 vaccine is demonstrably safer than getting the disease.

COVID-19 vaccines and blood clots – a review of current science

There have been extremely rare reports about blood clots being related to the JNJ and AstraZeneca COVID vaccines. Although science does not why this happens, researchers continue to explore why these COVID-19 vaccines might be linked to blood clots (thrombus).

A new review of the current research clears up some of the mystery, but, unfortunately, opens up some new questions. This article will examine the science, at least as far as we know, behind these blood clots and the two COVID-19 vaccines.

COVID vaccines effectiveness against new Delta variant

With the spread of the Delta variant (known as B.1.617.2 by the CDC) from India, scientists have been concerned about the effectiveness of COVID vaccines against it. The good news is that the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines seem to fairly effective against this new variant of SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Let’s take a look at the paper that describes the effectiveness of the vaccines against the COVID-19 Delta variant.

COVID herd immunity – vaccine denial may make that impossible

by Michael Simpson
2021-05-04
AstraZeneca, COVID-19, JNJ, Moderna, Pfizer, Vaccines

The only way to COVID-19 herd immunity is going to be via vaccines, but people throughout the world, especially in the USA, are refusing the COVID-19 vaccine. The anti-vaccine world is doing everything it can to sow fear, uncertainty, and doubt about these vaccines, despite our efforts to counter the disinformation campaign.

Let’s talk about COVID-19 herd immunity and how vaccines are important. And why we probably can’t hit herd immunity, a terrible consequence of the anti-vaccine rhetoric and lies.

COVID-19 vaccine shedding – another anti-vaccine myth to scare people

by Michael Simpson
2021-05-02
AstraZeneca, COVID-19, JNJ, Moderna, Pfizer, Vaccines

Here we go again – an expensive, privileged Miami private school has banned teachers who received the COVID-19 vaccine because of “shedding” concerns. Yes, you read that right, the school wrote to teachers that “we cannot allow recently vaccinated people to be near our students until more information is known.”

The school’s co-founder, Leila Centner, claimed that those people who had received the COVID-19 vaccine can somehow shed the spike protein, which in turn can cause menstrual cycle irregularities, miscarriages, and sterility in other women just by being in close proximity to vaccinated people who are shedding something.

Centner wrote, “we cannot allow recently vaccinated people to be near our students until more information is known.” She must get this nonsense from Kelly Brogan, anti-vaccine quack, who seems to have something with Centner and this school

Centner cited debunked claims that the vaccine causes infertility based on “reports have surfaced recently of non-vaccinated people being negatively impacted by interacting with people who have been vaccinated. Let’s be clear that that the scientific consensus about this vaccine is that is very effective and carries few risks.

Simply put, COVID-19 vaccine shedding does not exist, but I will spend a few moments debunking it again.