Vaccines have been in development since 1796 when a small boy was vaccinated with cowpox bacteria and developed immunity to smallpox. Vaccines have made smallpox and polio diseases of the past, while measles is not as devastating due to the rare incidences of the disease.

Over the years, vaccine hesitancy, meaning the delay or refusal to take vaccines, has developed due to fears of experimentation or frank mistrust of the “Babylon” system. The mistrust is not without merit when one reads about the Tuskegee syphilis experiment in which black Americans with syphilis were not treated as the researchers wanted to observe the full sequence of the disease. Closer home, when President Obama apologised for the unethical clinical trials for antibiotics in Guatemala, this was another confirmation of the medical wrongs done in the name of medical advancement, and we need no reminder of the experiments conducted by the Nazis.

Notwithstanding these atrocities, I still recommend vaccination, once the relevant procedures are followed and data review confirms the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 vaccines have been tainted with politics, along with other preventative measures such as mask-wearing, which has been divided along political lines, particularly in the US.

Given all these uncertainties, it is necessary to evaluate the various concerns or myths.

The vaccine has too many side effects

All drugs have side effects, and for all intents and purposes, the vaccine is a drug, even water has side effects. If you drink too much you can suffer from hyponatremia, where the sodium content in your body is too diluted due to excess water intake. This can be a life-threatening condition.

The nature of drug trials is that all adverse events, which includes side effects have to be reported, whether caused by the drug or not. For example, all non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs that are used for pain management also have headache as a possible side effect. If you fell during a drug trial, then that would have to be noted as an adverse event.

The concerns regarding blood clots are real, however, with an initial incidence of 0.007 per cent when vaccinations started to 0.004 per cent as more people are vaccinated, the incidents of blood clots have not increased. This side effect rate would not discourage me as other drugs that we take for pain management have comparable rates to cause a heart attack or stroke in some patients. The adverse effects of getting the active novel coronavirus far exceeds the risk of getting a clot, which is a rare side effect to the vaccine.

Even traditional herbal medicines can have side effects that may be related to how much you take, how it is prepared, or simply your own personal body chemistry.

The vaccine is ungodly

If you believe all knowledge comes from God then how would the knowledge to develop the vaccines be ungodly? We use knowledge given to us to make cough syrups and other needed medicines, are we then to be selective about knowledge? If knowledge was ungodly then we certainly would not have upgraded from donkey carts to V-6 engines.

We have been using recombinant technology to facilitate insulin production from bacterial cells, rather than extraction from pigs or cows and technology is being used to make a plethora of life-saving drugs, such as those that break blood clots that would otherwise kill patients.

The vaccine will be integrated in my body forever

The vaccines are made from bacteria or viruses that cause diseases. These are considered intruders by the body, which then mounts an attack through our immune (defence) system via the action of T-cells and B lymphocytes. These are the fighter cells produced by our bodies to defend against viral or bacterial attack. These fighter cells cause the production of antibodies in response to the presence of disease-causing organisms. This means that the body stores the memory of the virus or bacteria to produce the antibodies to destroy the organism if it meets it again.

Vaccines use technology to produce the virus in my body all the time

New technology is being used to make the vaccines. We are typically use to vaccines made from dead or inactivated viruses or bacteria, for example, the polio vaccine. Another way was use of live attenuated or weakened viruses or bacteria, as is used in the chickenpox vaccine. With either technology, the result is antibody production in response to the vaccine.

The technology progressed to the use of viral or bacterial proteins or sugar units to mount a defence response to the virus or bacteria. This is the technology used for the well-established tetanus and diphtheria vaccines. The protein or sugar unit is recognised as being of viral or bacterial origin and the body produces antibodies to fight the presence of the intruder.

The messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) technology by Pfizer and Moderna uses a gene sequence (the mRNA) from the virus that is introduced into the body. The mRNA is read by the body and the viral protein is produced. The body responds by producing antibodies to destroy the presence of the intruder protein. The mRNA is not incorporated in the cell forever, the capacity to produce the antibodies is retained and activated if the virus enters the body. This confers immunity or defence against the virus.

The AstraZeneca vaccine uses DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) technology with the RNA of the virus inserted into a double-strand DNA molecule to stabilise it. This is the same technology used to create the Ebola vaccine. The RNA strand is fragile, hence the temperature requirements and other measures for vaccines with RNA technology. Using the DNA technology, the RNA is introduced into the body through the DNA. Once introduced into the body, the RNA sequence is read with the production of the viral spike protein that triggers antibody production to counter the virus. The body can sense the presence of the intruder and mounts an attack, whether it is the weakened virus, its protein, or sugar unit. Again, the antibody production mechanism is retained for future use against viral intrusion.

Vaccine will introduce a chip in the body

For everyone who owns a phone — that is the ultimate chip to monitor movements. Even when the Google location is turned off, you are silently being monitored. I had the experience of turning on my Google location, and being asked to rate all the locations I had visited whilst it was turned off. So, if that is your concern, go and take the vaccine, you already have a chip.

Vaccines were produced too fast

The nature of technology is to shorten production time. The vaccines were fast-tracked, with 24-hour research, testing, and production because of the urgency of the situation. So, instead of the small phase 2 and phase 3 trials, the drugs were fast-tracked to larger phase 3 trials of hundreds of thousands of patients, rather than the typical 3,000 participants in phase 3.

To explain, phase 2 involves testing that the drug works and conducting additional safety tests beyond those in phase 1. In phase 3, the effectiveness is tested further and side effects monitored in a larger group of patients. Phase 4 is the post-marketing phase when the drug is available for use with constant monitoring of drug effectiveness and safety, as long as it is in the market. Even after several years, unusual side effects can occur, so constant monitoring is required. My reassurance was that the large- scale phase 3 testing was being done in developed countries, rather than developing countries. After this massive trial in developed countries, I was more than willing to take the vaccine after six months and over one million people being vaccinated in the developed countries.

To say that it is better to get natural immunity is a risk I am not willing to take. You can never know the strength of your immune system in response to this virus. There are asthmatic patients who catch the virus and have minimal or no symptoms. And there are young, active, healthy patients who have died from this disease. I would rather be introduced to the mild form as a vaccine, rather than the wild, virulently active form that can wreak havoc in my system. I urge people to assess and take the vaccine if there are no overwhelming medical risk factors.

The virus cannot reproduce on its own and needs an organism to reproduce. It introduces its entire RNA in your system to facilitate reproduction of the RNA to produce daughter cells, not proteins. With each reproduction it is trying to survive and will adapt or mutate to ensure its survival. The unvaccinated body represents a breeding ground for mutation and spread.

Let’s shut down this virus by not accommodating it in our bodies — it pays no rent, it is not your friend, it has no benefit. Do not let it use you to survive! Get vaccinated and stop this virus, or it may stop you — dead!

Dr Donna-Marie Wynter-Adams is a senior lecturer/pharmacologist at the University of Technology, Jamaica. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or dwadams@utech.edu.jm.