By Rachel Sawicki

A recent report from the COVID States Project reveals that belief in vaccine misinformation, as well as uncertainty, is associated with lower vaccine rates and higher vaccine resistance.

The study asked participants to evaluate four popular vaccine misstatements: ​​The COVID-19 vaccines will alter people’s DNA, the COVID-19 vaccines contain microchips that could track people, the COVID-19 vaccines contain the lung tissue of aborted fetuses, and the COVID-19 vaccines can cause infertility.

All four of these statements have been debunked, yet about 10% of Americans believe each statement to be true. Overall, 20% of Americans think at least one of these four false claims is accurate, according to the study.

There are several other claims about the vaccine that are causing confusion for Americans, including uncertainty about its creation and effectiveness.

Dr. Marci Drees is ChristianaCare’s hospital epidemiologist and director of the provider’s Infection Prevention Program. She is also the Education Committee chair for the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology in America and a liaison to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a subcommittee of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that reviews vaccine data and makes recommendations.

“I’ve been involved in almost weekly workgroup meetings that discuss the value of the COVID vaccines in detail,” Dr. Drees said.

The doctor answered a few questions to clear up some common misconceptions that people have about the COVID-19 vaccines.

Q: How was the vaccine made so quickly? Was there prior research that accelerated the development?

A: On the surface of it, it seems like it was incredibly fast. The fastest vaccine we’ve ever had prior to this was mumps, which took four years to develop. But you know, that wasn’t in the setting of a pandemic, where millions and billions of dollars of resources were pumped into getting rid of all the red tape that typically accompanies any sort of research.

But also, with the mRNA vaccines in particular, this really built on 15 to 20 years of work because we had SARS back in 2001, (and) we still have Middle East respiratory syndrome, so everyone has been well aware that coronaviruses can emerge and cause pandemics. So there has been a lot of research looking into mRNA vaccines, not just for coronavirus, but for cancer and for other illnesses. All you need is the genetic material from whatever disease you are trying to prevent, which we had within a week of when we realized COVID-19 was going to be an issue. If you’re trying to use a protein-based vaccine (like the flu shot), there are many more steps to create your final vaccine like purifying the protein, and it just takes a lot longer. (Developing the COVID-19 vaccine was) a much more simple process … you can plug it right in and start developing vaccines, so that’s how they got a jump-start on the vaccines.

Q: What exactly is an mRNA vaccine? How is it different from other vaccines?

A: mRNA is not a very stable molecule. It simply mimics the mRNA that your body produces every day naturally. So your body already has a process to break down mRNA and typically only lasts a few hours. (The vaccine molecules) tell your cells what proteins to produce, then your cells express that protein, which prompts your immune system to generate an immune response, and the stuff that is in the vaccine is gone in a matter of hours.

Q: What about long-term side effects? How do you know if and what they will be?

A: In the history of all vaccines, we’ve never had a vaccine that has side effects after about six to eight weeks after the vaccination. The only potential exception to that is the post-polio syndrome that was seen after the live polio vaccines, but that is an entirely different situation because that was a live attenuated vaccine, whereas there’s nothing alive in these mRNA vaccines. Because the molecules disappear after a few hours, there’s nothing that would cause any sort of long-term side effects months or years later.

Q: The vaccines are not 100% preventive, which has been clear from the start. What sort of circumstances make it more likely for a vaccinated person to still get the coronavirus?

A: First of all, the vaccines are not 100%, but they are still incredibly effective. No one was anticipating that (the Moderna and Pfizer vaccine) would be (about) 95% effective.

The virus is trying to survive and pass from person to person, and if it has a random mutation that allows it to do that a little bit better or it’s evading the vaccine or transmitting more easily or whatever the case may be, it’s going to do that. But they are still preventing the most serious disease. The situations where I would worry are if someone has underlying immune compromise. They are less likely to mount a strong immune response to the vaccines. Any time you are in a large group of people, particularly indoors where you’re not able to socially distance (and) you don’t know what people’s vaccination status is, those are the types of situations that this virus takes advantage of. When you have a virus that’s circulating at a high level, you’re going to see cases in unvaccinated, as well as some vaccinated, people.

Q: The delta variant is taking over as the dominant strain in most new COVID-19 cases. Are vaccines effective against that variant?

A: We certainly are starting to see a big drop in efficacy in people who only got one dose, as opposed to two of the mRNA vaccines. Whereas before, there was still fairly high protection even after one dose. The important thing is that we’re still seeing very high protection against hospitalization and death. Some outbreaks suggest that people had a similar viral load whether they were vaccinated or not, which had not been seen with prior variants, but that doesn’t mean as contagious. People that had been vaccinated were definitely less contagious. But we’ve also seen other studies that have shown that people who are vaccinated clear the virus much more quickly and don’t stay contagious for as long.

Q: Pfizer’s CEO has said a third dose of the vaccine will likely be needed within 12 months of getting fully vaccinated. Do you think we will all need booster shots every year?

A: We don’t know for sure that a third dose is the solution. Another dose is actively being discussed for the immunocompromised population because they don’t respond as well to vaccines. Coronaviruses in general don’t mutate as quickly as flu does. Flu has a very predictable season, and we know that it changes through the course of the season, whereas coronaviruses don’t typically do that quite as quickly. So I think, you know, if we can get to the point where we have enough people vaccinated and where COVID isn’t circulating very heavily, then I think we’ll stop seeing the emergence of it. Does that mean we’ll never need a booster? I can’t say that because COVID has been unpredictable in terms of how people respond to it and when it surges.

According to CDC, 73.7% of Delawareans have at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, but some areas in southwestern Delaware have vaccination rates as low as 32.7%.