Since the onset of COVID-19, there have been a slew of misconceptions — not only about the coronavirus, but about the vaccine made to combat it. Dr. Amy Edwards, associate medical director and infectious disease physician for University Hospitals Health System, shares the truth about common misconceptions.
Vaccines Are Giving People COVID-19
Live-virus vaccines do exist, such as the smallpox vaccine, but none of the COVID-19 vaccines fall into that category. In fact, symptoms experienced after receiving the vaccine come from the stimulation of your immune system. “Neither of them [dual or single dose vaccines] have living COVID virus molecules,” says Edwards.
The Vaccine Was Made Too Quickly To Trust
This misconception stems from cautions given by the medical community that vaccines may take years to create. Fortunately, professionals began researching coronaviruses more than a decade ago after the SARS and MERS outbreaks. “A lot of the bench research was already done,” says Edwards. “When we talk about the fact that vaccines need a decade or more to develop, it’s actually primarily the bench research that we’re talking about.”
The Vaccine Is Bad For Your Pregnancy
Pregnancy concerns regarding vaccines are an old misconception. “There’s a couple of different versions of this that I’ve heard — that it can cause miscarriage or a stillborn,” says Edwards. “That is simply not true.” Rates of stillbirth and pregnancy loss remain the same in vaccinated and unvaccinated people, and no vaccine has, as of yet, ever been proven to cause problems with fertility.
