The Big Four Myths About Corona Vaccines

VMany people in Germany are not sure if they want to get the Corona vaccine. Therefore, experts ask for more specific and understandable information about new products, for example from BioNTech or Moderna.

The biggest problem is probably the false claims that are spreading fast. Four myths are particularly common:

1. Myth: Corona vaccines could cause infertility in women.

Rating: incorrect.

ACTS: People who make this claim generally base their arguments on the supposed similarity between the coronavirus’s so-called spike protein, which the pathogen uses to attach itself to human cells, and the body’s own protein called syncytin-1.

In women of childbearing age, Syncytin-1 is responsible for the formation of the placenta, which supplies nutrients to the offspring in utero. The thesis is now: if the body builds an immune defense against crown spike protein after a vaccine, this reaction also spreads to syncytin-1 and thus prevents the formation of the placenta.

However, there is no particular similarity between the two proteins, so “a vaccine cross-reaction is basically impossible,” said Annette Beck-Sickinger, head of the research group for biochemistry and bioorganic chemistry at the University of Leipzig, of the “Freie Presse”.

Lars Dölken, Professor of Virology and Immunobiology at the University of Würzburg, told dpa: Even if both proteins showed similarities, it could not be concluded that the body’s own defenses against the coronavirus also attack the syncytin-1 protein.

Also: If such a prolonged reaction really did occur, the Covid disease should have had harmful effects on pregnant women, Dölken said. Because the body forms the same defense mechanisms in case of infection as after a vaccine. In studies on Sars-CoV-2, however, no increased number of miscarriages or complications were found.

2. Myth: An mRNA vaccine causes changes in genes.

Evaluation: That is impossible.

ACTS: Older vaccines, such as flu vaccines, usually contain killed or weakened viruses or parts of them. The corona agents from BioNTech and Moderna work differently, that is, for the first time through so-called mRNA (the “m” stands for “messenger”, “RNA” for “ribonucleic acid”).

No dead Sars-CoV-2 pathogens are injected, just the instructions for a component of the virus: the mRNA of the messenger molecule. On this basis, the cells of the body themselves produce parts of the envelope protein of the virus (spike protein). Faced with this, in turn, the immune system now develops certain factors so that in case of subsequent contact with the coronavirus it can recognize the structure of the protein and specifically fight the pathogen.

Information from RNA cannot be incorporated into human DNA. That already prevents the different chemical structure of both. Furthermore, the mRNA ingested with the vaccination does not even reach the cell nuclei where the genetic material is stored in the form of DNA. Messenger molecules only migrate into cell plasma, where they are read and then rapidly broken down, so fast that for a long time it was considered impossible to use them therapeutically.

American researchers recently discovered that in very rare cases and under extreme circumstances of a corona infection, small fragments of the virus’ genetic material could enter human DNA. However, its advance publication, which has not yet been reviewed by independent researchers, does not cover vaccines. “However, it will be completely ruled out that the RNA vaccine is rewritten and integrated into DNA,” emphasized Joachim Denner of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) regarding the US study.

3. Myth: Six people died from the BioNTech vaccine during testing.

Evaluation: Incorrect.

ACTS: 43,448 people participated in the BioNTech Phase 3 study. In the study period from late April to mid-November 2020, six of the participants died, but not from vaccination.

“All the deaths represent events that occur at a similar rate in the general population of the age groups in which they occurred,” writes the FDA, the agency responsible for approving the drug in the United States. The European approval authority EMA also sees “no connection” between the cases and the vaccination study: “Other previous diseases were more likely the cause of death.”

Four of the deaths in the study came from the comparison group, in which the participants did not receive a vaccine, but received a placebo. For example, they died of age-typical illnesses, such as a heart attack or stroke. One of the two deaths in the test group that received the vaccine suffered a heart attack about two months after the second pik. The second had several previous illnesses.

The president of the Robert Koch Institute, Lothar Wieler, had pointed out even before the EU approved the preparation of BioNTech that, due to statistical probability, “people will die in connection with vaccination”, for example, because first “the elderly and very old people who are generally at higher risk of death because of their age.

In the 10 deaths reported nationwide as of Thursday shortly after a corona vaccination, experts at the Paul Ehrlich Institute consider a connection to immunization unlikely. “Based on the data we have, we assume that the patients died from their underlying disease, in a coincidental temporal connection to the vaccine,” said Brigitte Keller-Stanislawski of the institute. By Thursday, more than 800,000 people in Germany had received a first dose of vaccine, including more than 300,000 residents of nursing homes.

4. Myth: The rapid approval and novelty of the mRNA vaccine make the preparation unsafe.

Rating: incorrect.

ACTS: Unlike Great Britain or the United States, for example, there was no emergency approval in the EU. Instead, Europe relies on a so-called conditional marketing authorization. The difference: in the case of a conditional marketing authorization, testing is carried out more extensively and manufacturers have more responsibility for the safety of the medicine.

In light of the pandemic, the approval process for corona vaccines has accelerated; the so-called continuous review process applies. Manufacturers of pharmaceutical products can submit individual reports on the quality, safety and efficacy of their preparation even before the full application for approval. So new findings are verified during development, not at the end.

This makes the process faster, but no less secure: “A continuous review and accelerated evaluation process does not mean that there will be compromises in terms of care during testing,” writes the Paul Ehrlich Institute responsible for vaccines and drugs.

Although none of the mRNA vaccines have been previously approved for humans, the technology was not only developed in the wake of the corona pandemic. Research has been done for more than three decades, for example, for cancer therapy and vaccines against rabies, Zika, or seasonal flu. The German companies CureVac and BioNTech have also been working on the medical use of mRNA for a long time. The race in fighting the corona pandemic has now helped vaccines make a breakthrough.