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PolitiFact

25 Jun, 9 tweets, 3 min read

The novel coronavirus emerged in December 2019 and the first vaccine was approved a year later. That may seem fast, but the science behind the coronavirus vaccines is years in the making.

politifact.com/article/2021/a…

Vaccines are by no means perfect. They can have minor temporary side effects. A small number of vaccinated people will get break-through infections and get sick anyway.

*But for most people, vaccines keep you from getting seriously sick and dying of COVID-19.*

Those are the facts. But on social media, people are still sharing messages that vaccines are dangerous and people shouldn’t get them. The factual claims they make to back up that opinion, though, aren’t very strong. In some cases they are contradicted by evidence.

For example:

No, the vaccines “spike protein” is not “cytotoxic.” That’s False. U.S. public health authorities and vaccine experts say there is no evidence that the vaccines’ spike protein is toxic or “cytotoxic,” which means toxic to cells.
politifact.com/factchecks/202…

No, the new Novavax vaccine does not dump millions of dangerous spike proteins right into your body. That’s False. A vaccine expert said the new vaccine developed by Novamax contains a single viral protein similar to other common vaccines.
politifact.com/factchecks/202…

Novavax said its vaccine can neither replicate nor cause COVID-19. “It ‘teaches’ your immune system to recognize the virus so that when exposed to the real thing, your body is prepared to mount an effective immune response," the company said in a statement.

No, unvaccinated people have not escaped variants of the virus that causes COVID-19. That’s False. Unvaccinated people are highly susceptible to contracting COVID-19, including from emerging variants. Multiple documented cases show this.
politifact.com/factchecks/202…

It’s hard to talk to people who’ve become convinced by online misinformation. But many people have more common concerns about the vaccine that can be addressed with solid, science-backed information. Like so:

See all of our latest COVID-19 fact-checking here: politifact.com/coronavirus

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