One of the biggest outstanding questions of the COVID-19 pandemic is the origin of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus responsible for the disease. One idea, put forward by some news sites like Fox News and government officials, is that SARS-CoV-2 was man-made. As very few living people have witnessed a pandemic of this scale before, it is … Continued
Some vaccines, including the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, use human cell lines during the manufacturing process to produce some key ingredients. The Per.C6 cell line used to produce the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was derived from a single aborted fetus in 1985. However, any cells used during vaccine production are destroyed and filtered out during the purification process, therefore the final product doesn’t contain any cells or tissue from aborted fetuses.
The COVID-19 vaccines authorized for use in the U.S. were tested in thousands of people during clinical trials and were shown to be safe. The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines are designed to prompt our cells to produce the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and cannot change your DNA. There are rare cases of anaphylactic reactions to the vaccines, which would be expected in any widely distributed vaccine. There is no evidence that the COVID-19 vaccines have contributed to any deaths.
A recent CDC study found that mask mandates were associated with a significant decrease in the growth rate of both COVID-19 cases and deaths during the 100 days after the policies were implemented. The study also found that policies allowing on-premises restaurant dining were associated with an increase in the growth rate of COVID-19 cases and deaths. Claiming that the CDC study shows mask usage had a negligible impact on the spread of COVID-19 is inaccurate.
Clinical trials showed that the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine has an efficacy of about 95%. The vaccine requires two doses to achieve full efficacy. It can also take several weeks for immunity to develop, during which people still remain vulnerable to COVID-19. Safety data from trials and monitoring of ongoing vaccination campaigns don’t show that vaccinated people are more likely to die from COVID-19. In fact, data from Israel indicates that the vaccine is effective at reducing the number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.
The Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines were among the first to be authorized for emergency use. A new study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, confirmed that the vaccines provide a high level of protection after two weeks against COVID-19 hospitalizations and death. An observation that the risk of COVID-19 infection increased in the first nine days after vaccination was only seen in the first group of elderly people vaccinated. This observation might be due to their higher pre-existing risk of COVID-19 infections, rather than an effect of the vaccine. No such effect was seen when vaccination was expanded to a wider group of people.
Any event that occurs after someone received a COVID-19 vaccine isn’t necessarily a consequence of vaccination but may simply happen by coincidence. The risk of severe illness from COVID-19 increases with age, posing a specific risk for this population. In contrast, available evidence doesn’t suggest that frail, elderly individuals are more susceptible to vaccine side effects than others. Ongoing safety monitoring of COVID-19 vaccination shows that COVID-19 vaccines authorized for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are safe and effective for elderly populations.
Several countries, including the U.S., started rolling out COVID-19 vaccines in December 2020. So far, the U.S. has administered more COVID-19 vaccine doses than any other country in the world. However, the majority of the U.S. population still needs to be vaccinated to halt the spread of the virus and reduce the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths. When measured as a proportion of population, 15% of the U.S. population has received at least one vaccine dose, as compared to 30% of the population in the U.K. and 55% of the population in Israel.
The COVID-19 vaccines authorized for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration demonstrated a high level of safety and efficacy in protecting people from disease. Their ability to reduce transmission is unclear, but studies are underway. Due to the concern that vaccinated people may still transmit the virus to unvaccinated people, the former still need to practice preventative measures like mask-wearing and physical distancing. Unvaccinated people remain the majority of the population in most countries, since not everyone can be vaccinated at the same time due to issues like vaccine supply scarcity and labor shortages.
Wearing face masks and implementing lockdowns are effective measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Face masks serve as physical barriers that reduce transmission of droplets that carry the virus from infected to uninfected people. Implementing lockdowns leads to significant reductions in physical interactions between people, which also reduces transmission of COVID-19.
