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Dear Anti-Vaxxers Voices 

Dear Anti-Vaxxers

While vaccination numbers are rising within our province and throughout the world, it has brought forth a new wave of people who are very hesitant towards vaccines, specifically the covid-19 vaccine. It is important to be informed and to be vaccinated and therefore, this article is here to debunk some fears people have about the covid-19 vaccine.

How can you make an effective vaccine in one year?

Covid-19’s official name as stated by the World Health Organization is SARS-coV-2. Why the two? That’s because there is a SARS-co-V-1 and that was first seen in 2002 in Foshan, Guangdong, China and over eight thousand people were affected all over the world. The reason the case count was so low was because people with sars were not as contagious as those with covid, however, sars and covid belong to the same virus strain known as by its scientific name, coronaviridae, or as we know it, coronavirus. This research is decades in the making, and why has the vaccine come out now instead of years ago, well that’s because the world wasn’t on edge years ago, that’s because 3.1 million people lost their lives world-wide, and that number is going to get higher if you don’t get vaccinated. 

They didn’t do enough tests 

Yes, they did, there are 4 stages before confirming whether or not a vaccine is good enough to give to the general population. There are the preclinical trials where there is an attempt to find natural antigens to be able to activate your immune system. Phase 1 is testing the vaccine on a small number of people to evaluate safety measures and phase 2a is to figure out the dosage, how much is good enough? In phase 2b the number of people given the vaccine will increase. In phase 3, they attempt to figure out how effective the vaccine is by essentially having one half of their participants receive the vaccine and the other half receive a placebo and to study their symptoms. Lastly, the fourth stage is regulatory approval from the government health experts of the country that wants to give the vaccine to its citizens. This information is available to everyone and actually from the Johnson and Johnson website, which leads into my next point later on. 

To add, these vaccines have been tested on all kinds of people, from ages as young as sixteen, Pfizer actually had 43,000 participants in their clinical trials as seen on their website. Despite the fact that some vaccines vary in efficiency rates, all vaccines significantly reduce or completely rid your chances of being hospitalized with covid which means, you will not die.

AstraZeneca gives you blood clots

A side effect of the AstraZeneca vaccine is that you can develop rare blood clots, and it is true there were even two cases in Quebec of this and a few others within the country. However, the key word is, rare, seven hundred thousand people have been vaccinated with AstraZeneca and it has been proven that you are more likely to get blood clots from covid itself rather than the vaccine. So for those of you saying you’ll take your chances with the virus instead of getting vaccinated, literally go right ahead. 

Not to mention that there are risks with every type of medicine we are prescribed, it is all a matter of how your individual body handles it and therefore important to know your risk factors such as allergic reactions to medicine and so on. You are more likely to get blood clots from birth control than the AstraZeneca vaccine, yet we don’t stop prescribing it because women need that the same way the world needs vaccines.  This is not an attempt to make you not take medicine anymore, just an attempt to make you understand that the benefit far outweighs the risks. 

I had covid, so I’m immune

Despite the fact that once you have covid and it has passed, your body develops antibodies to be able to fight the virus. However, there is no evidence to suggest that you become immune afterwards and there was a study conducted by the CDC that states that reinfection can potentially be more severe than the first time you were infected. Furthermore, for those saying that they have antibodies already and therefore will not get vaccinated, your antibodies are temporary and last for about five to seven months. The vaccine is there to strengthen the already existing antibodies in your body and give some to those who never caught it.  

Vaccines cause autism 

If you have access to a computer and you go around saying this I’m honestly embarrassed for you, because it is scientifically proven that there is no link between vaccines and autism. First of all, autism is not an illness that is caught and developed over the span of your life, autism is caused by genetics. People also like to specifically use the word autism to also mean that vaccines cause slower development in child progression, which is also false, and also caused by genetics. Not to mention that you insinuating this means that if your child does have a “slower” developmental stage or even is autistic that something is wrong with them when in actuality, nothing is. These issues are totally out of anyone’s control and there isn’t a source to blame. Yes, your child being autistic or having a slow processing speed puts them at a disadvantage with our ableist society since most people are neurotypical, however this doesn’t mean that they are doomed to fail. Therefore, stop speaking of autism and other developmental disorders as if it will ruin your child’s life, autistic people are fully functioning members of society and are definitely not autistic because of a vaccine. 

To conclude, vaccines are an efficient way to develop herd immunity and finally put an end to this pandemic once and for all. Getting vaccinated makes the world safer for a small percentage of people who really can’t get the covid vaccine such as children and those who are allergic to the ingredients of the vaccine. If you’re selfish and don’t care about other people, then you should still take it because all it does is protect you. Also make sure that you’re getting your vaccine when you are eligible and not by cutting corners. We’ve made it this far and if people are getting it before you, it’s because their risks of dying upon infection are much greater than yours, your turn will come. All we do is benefit from this vaccine and please don’t forget that. 

By Isabella Del Grosso 

 

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