HOUSTON — There are a lot of rumors spreading on social media about the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine. Many of you turned asked the VERIFY Team to look into them. We took them to Dr. Amesh Adalja, a Senior Scholar at Johns Hopkins and an expert in infectious diseases, critical care and emergency medicine.
CLAIM: The vaccine can give me COVID-19.
FALSE: “The vaccines do not contain the full coronavirus or Sars-Cov-2. They just contain one protein of it. So, it is impossible for the vaccine to give you COVID," Adalja said.
CLAIM: Now that I am fully vaccinated, I will test positive for COVID-19.
FALSE: “If you've been fully vaccinated for COVID-19, the vaccine is not going to turn your test positive. If you were to test positive post-vaccination, it likely means you had a breakthrough infection," Adalja said.
CLAIM: If you get the Pfizer vaccine, you will need to get the shot every six months to be protected.
FALSE: “We don't know what the duration of immunity is going to be after these vaccines, but we know it's likely to be over a year,” Adalja said.
CLAIM: You can still be infected with the virus after you get the vaccine.
IT DEPENDS: “What we're learning is that these vaccines are highly effective at preventing symptomatic disease. Emerging data is showing that it's very, very unlikely that you can even be infected with the virus if you've been vaccinated,” Adalja said.
CLAIM: I have tested positive for COVID and recovered. I have antibodies now. So, I do not need the vaccine.
FALSE: “If you've had COVID-19 you do have some natural immunity. However, that natural immunity will wear over time and it will wane,” Adalja said.
CLAIM: I do not need the vaccine because I am young and healthy.
FALSE: “Just because you're young and healthy doesn't mean that you're going to have an uncomplicated case of COVID-19. It’s also the case that you could become an unwitting carrier of this virus and set off a chain of transmission that lands on a vulnerable person," Adalja said.
CLAIM: People have died from the COVID-19 vaccine.
FALSE: “There have been no credible reports that the vaccine has been completely tied to someone's death. There are cases of people who die after the vaccine, but that doesn't mean it was caused by the vaccine,” Adalja said.