I am not vaccinated against covid…
We analyze the popular reasons
Polina Menshova, Gabriela Chalabova, TASS
Journalists gathered the most frequent arguments against coronavirus vaccinations in social networks and among friends and discussed them with specialists.
1. I believe in vaccinations against diseases that are defeated. What helps against smallpox or polio is clear, but something new is constantly being found out about covid, the virus mutates - the vaccine may not work
Professor of the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology Georgy Bazykin
Now the effectiveness of various vaccines against new variants of coronavirus is being closely monitored all over the world, including in Russia. According to the latest data, vaccines that protected against the initial variants of SARS-CoV-2 remain effective against new ones common in Russia, primarily Alpha and Delta. The list of countries where a large proportion of the population is vaccinated is growing, and vaccination everywhere reduces the total number of cases, although in these countries it is mainly new variants of the virus that are found. It is impossible to predict in advance how the vaccine will act on those variants that will appear in the future, but even if they partially evade immunity, the composition of vaccines can be updated. This, for example, is done every year with a flu vaccine.
Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor at the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology and Rutgers University (USA) Konstantin Severinov
Vaccines against COVID-19, the effectiveness of which has been proven, lead to the formation of antibodies in vaccinated people that neutralize the virus and protect against infection. New strains of the virus are neutralized by antibodies in the blood of vaccinated more slowly than the original Wuhan variant, against which vaccines were developed, but in any case neutralization occurs. In the blood of unvaccinated people, the virus is not neutralized at all. The level of protection provided by vaccines that have passed the necessary tests is high enough that a person either does not get sick with new variants, or suffers the disease more easily than an unvaccinated one. There will most likely be no special drugs against different strains of coronavirus: they simply will not be required.
Doctor of Psychological Sciences, Head of the Laboratory of Social and Economic Psychology of the Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences Timofey Nestik
The studies we have conducted show that the negative attitude towards vaccination against COVID-19 is explained by a number of factors: low social trust, concern about the unforeseen consequences of vaccination, the belief that most other people do not trust vaccines and belief in conspiracy theories. But the biggest contribution to it is the idea of COVID-19 as a disease that is still poorly understood and the consequences of which are unknown. It is important to understand that the nature of COVID-19 has already been studied much better than in 2020, most independent experts agree in many ways. And the effectiveness of vaccines against smallpox and polio is also not one hundred percent: vaccinations against these diseases work in 90-95% of cases (Sputnik is effective in 97.6% of cases – approx. TASS).
2. I'm waiting for a vaccine based on a dead virus to appear, not a synthetic one
Konstantin Severinov: To develop a vaccine based on a killed virus, you need to be able to develop an infectious virus in gigantic quantities, and then kill it by treating it with special chemicals, and prepare vaccines based on the killed virus. Obviously, to create such vaccines, you need to have access to the virus and be able to develop it in laboratory and production conditions. It takes time. To make a recombinant vaccine like Sputnik, you need not physical access to the virus itself, but computer access to its genetic information. It was published in early 2020. That is why Sputnik appeared before the inactivated, that is, the killed Kovivak vaccine and managed to pass all three phases of clinical trials. The effectiveness of its protective action has been proven. Killed vaccines against diseases caused by other viruses are widely used, this is a time-tested way to create vaccines. There is no data on the effectiveness, protective effect of "Kovivak" yet: the corresponding third phase of clinical trials is being conducted now, the results are expected by the end of summer (according to preliminary results of clinical studies of the second phase, approximately 80% of volunteers have formed antibodies – approx. TASS).
You can wait for anything, but this tactic may be unproductive. While waiting, a large number of people get infected, some manage to die while waiting.
3. I don't trust a vaccine that has been tested for less than a year. The long-term effects may be noticeable only after a few years
The Sputnik vaccine has passed three phases of clinical trials, which confirmed that the drug is safe and effective. The results were published by the leading medical journal The Lancet.
Two stages of research "Epivaccorons" have shown that this vaccine is also able to protect against coronavirus infection.
Kovivak has also successfully passed two phases of clinical trials.
Konstantin Severinov: It has been proven that the vaccines that are currently being used prevent the disease. All of these vaccines have an emergency use permit, because we are in a state of pandemic, or war, if you like. It is important to understand that the probability of getting sick with covid in the next month and even possibly dying is high and there is simply no time to find out all the possible consequences of vaccination before deciding on vaccination. All the experience of the past says that the risk of complications, especially long-term, from the use of vaccines is negligible compared to the risk of diseases against which vaccines are directed.
Vladimir Gushchin, Head of the Laboratory of Mechanisms of Population Variability of Pathogenic Microorganisms of the N.F. Gamalei NITSEM
People who had COVID-19 had a significantly increased risk of lung and heart disorders, shortness of breath, arrhythmia, tachycardia, diabetes, persistent fatigue and muscle weakness. None of the described violations were observed in millions of Russians who received the vaccine.
4. The vaccine causes infertility
This misconception in the column for STAT is analyzed by reproductive endocrinologist and infertility specialist Yves Feinberg. The specialist traces the myth from the moment it appeared: when anti-vaccinators sent a letter to the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which registers drugs in the European Union. In the letter, they wrote that the thorn-shaped protein of the coronavirus, which the immune system learns to recognize with the help of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine, contains the protein syncytin-1, which is necessary in the placenta. Feinberg confirms that without syncytin-1, the placenta may form incorrectly or a miscarriage may occur. But in vaccines there is neither the protein itself, nor what would produce antibodies to syncytin-1.
Konstantin Severinov: People who say this should think about what such a statement can be based on. Imagine: Pfizer was tested last summer, and Sputnik's clinical trials were conducted last fall. Pregnant women were not included in the groups of subjects, and women who participated in the trials committed themselves to using contraceptives. These vaccines got into official civilian access only in December 2020. It's June now. Pregnancy lasts nine months. To say that vaccines cause infertility, it is necessary that people who were vaccinated in January tried to conceive a child for a long time and unsuccessfully, and then reported it somewhere where studies would be conducted that show that this inability is associated with vaccination, and not with a million other reasons. Then one could say that it is related to the vaccine. No one has conducted such an analysis. The children who were conceived in January and the following months of mass vaccination have not yet been born. That is, the claims about infertility and defects in newborns are obviously insane, they cannot have any reasonable grounds.
Timofey Nestik: There is no confirmed data on the impact on reproductive health for any COVID-19 vaccine. Unfortunately, attempts to argue with convinced opponents of vaccinations provoke a boomerang effect: the debunking of myths fixes the myths themselves in memory. Research shows that the key prerequisites for believing in conspiracy theories are experiencing loss of control and low social trust. Belief in conspiracy theories protects a consistent, logical picture of the world in conditions of high uncertainty, creates the illusion of understanding and controlling the situation. Therefore, it is important not only to provide scientific data on the safety of vaccines and explain how conspiracy theories appear, but also to increase confidence that people are able to control the situation, maintain self-esteem, and demonstrate confidence in their choice. And of course, we need to provide people with the widest possible choice of vaccines.
5. The vaccine alleviates the disease, but does not significantly reduce the risk of being a carrier, that is, it does not affect the overall epidemiological situation
Georgy Bazykin: That's not so. For example, in Israel, universal vaccination has led to the fact that covid is almost defeated there.
6. After vaccination, a person can be contagious
Konstantin Severinov: It's possible. But a vaccinated person is much less contagious than an unvaccinated one. You get infected with the virus through the nasopharynx, for some time it multiplies there, infects your cells, produces viral offspring. If you have been vaccinated, then the antibodies that you already have prevent the infection from spreading, and the body defeats the virus faster than if you have not been vaccinated. But for a while, until the virus is completely defeated, you can infect other people, although the number of viruses that you will produce and "release" outside will be less than the amount that you would produce if you did not vaccinate. And if you are communicating with an infected person who has been injected with the vaccine, then most likely the probability of getting sick will be lower, because he or she, other things being equal, will release less of the virus outside.
7. The vaccine can change DNA
Konstantin Severinov: There are different vaccines. Some are based on RNA, some have peptides, others, for example, in Sputnik, have DNA. The mechanism of action of the "Satellite" is as follows: a harmless, unable to reproduce adenovirus enters some cells of our body. These cells begin to produce the coronavirus S-protein. This protein enters the bloodstream, and antibodies are produced as a reaction to it. Then the cellular immunity, which is formed at the same time, kills the cells that produce the S-protein. There are no traces of the vaccine (except for the immunity itself).
The attitude to DNA as something sacred, of course, is fine, but it is not based on anything. Many of the processes familiar to us are related to DNA changes in some of the trillions of cells that make up our body. For example, DNA inevitably changes, accumulates mutations when we sunbathe. Moreover, every time a cell divides, several dozen mutations occur in the DNA of daughter cells that were not present in the parent. Finally, with all the numerous viral infections that each of us suffers from, the genetic material of the virus – the causative agent of the disease gets into some of our cells.
8. I consider my immunity too weak to voluntarily plant a coronavirus for myself
Konstantin Severinov: First of all, no one is getting himself hooked on coronavirus: this happens only if a person becomes infected. In vaccines, there is either no coronavirus at all, or it is killed by chemical exposure, as in "Kovivak". The concept of "weak (or strong) immunity" does not exist. This is all from the folklore of some not the most educated Russian doctors, perhaps homeopaths.
If we are talking about immunodeficiency, diseases of the immune system, then the problem will be that the vaccination simply may not work: antibodies will not arise, because a normal immune response will not occur. The vaccine itself is not a source of infection, it is designed to prevent this infection. It definitely won't get any worse.
Timofey Nestik: People tend to think that everything natural is better than artificial, but in the case of immunity, this is not always the case. In such cases, it should be recalled that the threat to life from COVID-19 is higher than from vaccination. This is the so–called psychological effect of avoiding losses: in an effort to avoid a threat, people become more inclined to take risks, including risks associated with the consequences of vaccination. At the same time, it should be remembered that the ratio between the risk of getting sick and the risk of vaccination is individual, only a doctor can judge about contraindications.
9. I have good immunity to respiratory diseases, and I tolerate injections poorly. I don't know what will do more harm
Konstantin Severinov: All good and bad immunities remain on the conscience of those who talk about them. Here we need to consider a specific case: if a person can explain what exactly he means, there will be a subject for discussion. In general, you can watch a Soviet cartoon about a hippo who was afraid of vaccinations. It's just about that. The hippo, by the way, eventually got jaundice.
10. I take strong drugs with a complex mechanism of action: neuroleptics and normotimics. It is unclear how they and other psychotropic substances will interact with the vaccine
Candidate of Medical Sciences, psychiatrist, psychotherapist, specialist in the field of anxiety-depressive, psychosomatic and personality disorders Victoria Chitlova: There are no studies on this subject yet, but there is a lot of practice - mine and colleagues. Firstly, based on what we know, there is no interaction in general, and in practice we do not see any complications. Patients take prescription medications and feel comfortable. However, if the temperature rises above 38 degrees after vaccination, we recommend that you stop drinking antipsychotics for a couple of days. This is due to the discomfort that is imposed on a high temperature if medications are taken. Antidepressants at this time can not be excluded.
11. The doctor dissuaded me from getting vaccinated, although I have no contraindications
Konstantin Severinov: This is a big problem. On the one hand, it is simply the low level of professional knowledge of many doctors that affects, and on the other hand, the doctor who prescribes, or rather recommends vaccination, in a sense becomes responsible for its result. It is much easier for him or her to say that he/she does not recommend vaccination than to take responsibility and recommend vaccination. Such a doctor thinks, looking kindly into his patient's eyes: "Do I want him to have a potential, very rare reaction to the vaccination that I recommend and then he will raise a scandal, or let him go for a walk? He may get sick and even die from covid, but I won't have anything to do with it..."
You need to find out what the doctor is guided by when he convinces you not to get vaccinated, if there are doubts about his arguments, consult with other specialists. But in general, in order to be vaccinated, the recommendation of the attending physician is not needed, you just need to fill out a questionnaire and the question of expediency will be decided on the spot.
12. I have been ill with covid, I understand how it can be cured and how to ease the symptoms using folk methods. The body will cope if it has already coped once
Konstantin Severinov: Those who have already been ill can consider themselves protected, at least for some time (according to most experts, in order to increase the guarantee of protection, it is desirable to be vaccinated six months after the end of the disease - approx. TASS). There are much, much fewer people who get sick again than those who get sick for the first time. And conventional folk garlic and ginger in any case will not give any effect, and in moderation – will not make it worse.
Timofey Nestik: When we encounter a new and incomprehensible threat, we try to "tame" it and liken it to other, already known and more understandable risks. As a result, a false belief is formed that COVID-19 is no different from known infectious diseases – from influenza and other acute respiratory infections – and that strong immunity is enough to protect against it. The rarity or absence of certain events in personal experience leads to the fact that we underestimate their probability: it seems to a person that if he easily suffered an illness or did not even go to the doctor, he will also easily cope with new strains of coronavirus. Unfortunately, there are enough examples when self-medication and natural immunity did not facilitate, but only aggravated the situation.
13. People with chronic diseases and the elderly cannot be vaccinated – it can be dangerous
According to the press service of Rospotrebnadzor, chronic diseases can prevent the introduction of "Epivaccorona" or "Sputnik" only during periods when they worsen, although in each case it is worth consulting a doctor.
"According to post–vaccination observation, the tolerance of the vaccine is better in elderly people: they have less frequent fever, headache, less pronounced weakness in response to vaccination," the chief freelance geriatrician of the Ministry of Health of Russia, director of the Russian Gerontological Scientific and Clinical Center of the RNIMU named after N.I. told TASS in October. Pirogova Olga Tkacheva. – I can assume that this is due to the aging of the immune system. The reaction to the introduction of the antigen in the elderly is not so powerful, but it is enough to develop immunity. Studies have shown that vaccination is effective in both the elderly and the young." Anyway, old age in itself is not a contraindication for vaccination, says Olga Tkacheva. Contraindications to vaccination in the elderly are exactly the same as in the young, and they are usually described in the instructions for the drug.
14. Vaccinations help the body, but at the same time make it more vulnerable. My friends were vaccinated against the flu, but then even a cold was hard to bear
Konstantin Severinov: Unfortunately, conversations at the level of specific individual stories can be taken seriously only if there is an opportunity to study each of them, evaluate, make sure that a person understands what he is talking about: that everything happens as it is claimed, not at the level of "one grandmother said", but at the level of statistically reliable samples. After all, when we talk about epidemiology, about the need and benefits of vaccinations, we are not talking about one person, but about hundreds of thousands, millions of people.
It has been verified on large, statistically significant arrays of people: vaccination works. From smallpox, polio, encephalitis and so on. And from the coronavirus, too. At the same time, there is not a single one hundred percent effective vaccine. In each case, it is necessary to correlate the risks: from the disease, from the side effects of the vaccine and compare these risks with the benefits, positive effects of vaccines. No one is immune from a rare reaction to the drug, although cases when it occurs are very, very rare – much more often there is a risk of dying in a car accident. This is also why it is important to take precautions after vaccination: people do not get a ticket to life without diseases. But the probability of getting sick is decreasing. How much exactly is found out by the trials of the third phase of clinical trials and subsequent monitoring of the use of the vaccine in civil circulation.
15. You need to be sure that the body is in a normal state, and then a cold, then an allergy: it is unclear when it is better to get vaccinated
Konstantin Severinov: This is woe from wit. It should be guided by this: according to official data, not a single person died from Sputnik. At the same time, at least 30 million doses of the vaccine were used. People have been dying and dying from the coronavirus, but there is no vaccine. In our country, more than 130 thousand people died, according to official statistics, in a year with a tail. Judging by the excess mortality, about half a million people actually died. You will not die from the vaccine, you will not die from allergies and colds, you will not die from vaccinations, allergies and colds combined. And you can die from covid. And your loved ones too. Increased anxiety during a pandemic is understandable. But it is still important to correlate risks, we are reasonable people.
16. After the second vaccination, friends lay at home for a week. I can't afford this: there are a lot of things to do
Timofey Nestik: We tend to overestimate unlikely risks if we are faced with clear examples of their consequences, "felt" them on our own or someone else's experience. And vice versa: much more likely risks are underestimated if they are described by abstract forecasts and statistics. In such situations, other concrete examples may be an argument: it is no longer rare cases when it was vaccination that saved lives, or the regrets of people who did not get vaccinated in time or did not insist that their loved ones be vaccinated.
17. Federal Law No. 157 gives the right to refuse any preventive vaccination. And anyway, my body is my business
Healthcare lawyer, Director of the international law firm Yusufov Group Asad Yusufov
The federal law provides that the chief sanitary doctor of the region has the right to introduce mandatory vaccination. He can determine and declare the level of danger and the need to vaccinate against a particular virus.
In addition to the national vaccination calendar – mandatory for everyone – there is an epidemiological calendar. There, the Ministry of Health vaccinated against coronavirus infection back in December. When there is a threat of infectious diseases, the vaccine is administered to the entire population or to individual occupational groups.
"In general, our epidemic legislation has been simply dead for many years, since such situations have not arisen. And that's why all the contradictions have not been revealed in practice. Now, as soon as the epidemic came, it became noticeable. All legal gaps: what is considered self-isolation, what is forced vaccination, what is voluntary vaccination, what should be done in these cases, what is meant by suspension from work. This is not worked out in the labor Code, and in the orders of the Rostrud it is indicated that a person who has not made a mandatory vaccination for him can be suspended from work," the lawyer argues.
Timofey Nestik: It should be recognized that a forced vaccination is perceived as an invasion of a person's personal space by the state. In a pandemic, one of the strongest fears is to stop controlling your life. The restrictive measures that the state is forced to take are massive, impersonal in nature and fuel another fear – to lose individuality. All this is reinforced by the traditionally low level of trust in social institutions, conspiracy beliefs and polar opinions in social networks. A negative role is played by the discrepancy in the assessments of experts when we hear diametrically opposite judgments from people whose knowledge or awareness we trust. In addition, the mass audience is bombarded with increasing numbers of infections and deaths. This causes the effect of insensitivity to the scale of the victims, empathy is blocked. Meanwhile, voluntary vaccination is a way to return to normal life and maintain the ability to influence its course.
18. You can do without vaccination, as long as I am not forced to do it personally
Timofey Nestik: If we shift responsibility for our health to the state, we become more vulnerable to many other psychological distortions. Including for overoptimism: studies show that we estimate the probability of getting infected ourselves or infecting others lower than the probability that it will happen to someone else.
19. We will die anyway, each in his own hour: what will be, will not pass
Timofey Nestik: Fatalism is one of the defensive reactions to the global threat, which is difficult to control. According to our pre-coronavirus studies, it is typical for 13% of Russians, and during the pandemic this proportion increased to 20-26%. One of the reasons for fatalism is low faith in their ability to protect themselves and their loved ones from the pandemic and its consequences. Fear becomes a reason to change behavior only when people believe in their ability to influence the situation. Otherwise, it triggers strong defensive reactions. When fear is whipped up in the media, a contradiction arises: a person is worried, but at the same time thinks that he cannot change the situation. This dissonance is resolved as follows: the probability of risk and its severe consequences decreases, a person denies the situation, resorts to covid-dissidence and fatalism.
The fear of getting infected is one of the prerequisites for being ready to be vaccinated, but it does not affect the negative attitude towards vaccination if it has already been formed. If you want to explain to someone close to you why vaccination is important, you should speak emotionally, but avoid catastrophization and alarmism. It is not necessary to cause fear of your own infection, but anxiety for those who are dear.
20. Together with the vaccine, I will be injected with a chip. It's all Bill Gates
The myth that a microchip that monitors a person is injected with a coronavirus vaccination drug was investigated by The Verge. It was replicated by foreign media when, in March last year, Bill Gates suggested that one day everyone would have a card with digitized medical data, including information about vaccinations that a person had done.
Three months later, Bill Gates refuted the conspiracy theory. "I've never done things like microchips. It is very difficult to deny this, because it is very stupid or strange," the Business Insider portal quotes the entrepreneur.
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