Canadian activists make inaccurate allegations about Covid-19 vaccine safety

An anti-masked activist in Ontario makes false allegations in an Instagram video about the safety of Covid-19 vaccines available in Canada, and misleadingly refers to possible adverse vaccinations recorded in the United States. Medical experts said the shots did not alter the DNA of recipients and did not make people contagious.

“All the reasons not to take an experimental mRNA injection that has never been used on humans before”, reads the caption of a video from 21 February 2021 which has been viewed more than 195,000 times on Instagram from 5 March 2021 .

More than 878,000 Covid-19 cases and 22,000 deaths have been recorded in Canada. In early March, nearly four percent of Canadians received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine.

The video was posted by Chris Saccoccia, on social media known as Chris Sky. Saccoccia is charged in October 2020 with violating the Quarantine Act, which requires it to be isolated after foreign travel. He regularly takes part in protests against anti-Covid measures in Ontario.

In the video, he makes several false claims, which AFP investigates below:

mRNA vaccines reprogram DNA

Saccoccia claims: “The Canadian Covid vaccine is the only vaccine in history with mRNA technology. It is not a vaccine, it is artificial DNA that they inject into your body to reprogram the DNA of your own body to produce so-called antibodies against the coronavirus. It has never been used in humans before, but it has never been passed by animal testing because it killed all animals.

Several Covid-19 vaccines are being administered or are currently in trials around the world. In December, the Pfizer BioNTech shot was authorized using mRNA technology in Canada, followed by Moderna’s mRNA vaccine. Both are 94-95 percent effective.

Although the Covid-19 vaccines are the first to use the latest meson-ribonucleic acid (mRNA) technology that has been approved and distributed worldwide, research on the use of mRNA technology for vaccines began in the early 1990s and has shown promising tests on animals included.

“MRNA vaccines in particular have elicited strong immunity in recent years against infectious disease targets in animal models of influenza virus, Zika virus, rabies virus and others,” reads an article published on Nature’s website on 12 January 2018.

Alison Thompson, associate professor at Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto, told AFP in an email that “although the Pfizer and Modern vaccines are indeed the first successful mRNA vaccines, the technology has been around for decades. long used. “

Thompson also rejects the claim that the shots change the human genetic makeup, saying, “Technology does not reprogram our DNA.”

An MRNA vaccine contains no proteins of the virus itself, but rather the genetic instructions for the body to synthesize a viral protein so that the immune system learns how to defend itself.

It differs from regular vaccines in that it does not build up the immune system with a portion of a virus in an attenuated or inactivated form to build antibodies, a ‘blueprint’ of the ear protein, a part of the virus that the body then can recognize and fight if you are confronted by it later.

Kelly McNagny, a professor in the Department of Medical Genetics at the University of British Columbia, agrees that the claim is untrue.

He added in an email that the product has been subjected to many animal tests, “and it is indeed a vaccine. It is nothing else to reprogram but just to get an antibody and T-cell response to a foreign generate protein like all vaccines do. ‘

According to Mr. Matthew Miller, associate professor at the Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Science at McMaster University, proved that the mRNA Covid-19 vaccines are safe and effective in clinical trials, explaining that ‘mRNA is the code for proteins. It does not change the DNA of your cells. Indeed, your cells naturally make mRNA from DNA. ‘

He said that “these vaccines have an excellent safety profile, as evidenced by phase I to III clinical trials in humans.”

Thompson of the University of Toronto added that “unprecedented resources” are being spent internationally to monitor possible problems regarding the safety and efficacy of the vaccines.

‘Given the many millions of doses given so far, we would now know if there were any serious safety issues. What remains to be seen is how effective these vaccines are in the long run, ”she said.

More than 279 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine have been administered worldwide to date.

AFP had earlier made a similar claim here.

Covid-19 vaccines make people contagious

Saccoccia further claims: ‘They tell you that you are still contagious after you have been vaccinated, so you still have to wear a mask. So you are going to take a vaccine that makes you contagious to your friends and family when it was different? ‘

Experts believe that even if people get the chance, they can contract the disease and infect others, the mask is a precaution against possible asymptomatic transmission, and also helps protect the vaccine until the body’s immune response kicks in.

But Miller’s McMaster University said it was false to claim that vaccination “makes you more contagious than individuals who become infected but are not vaccinated.”

Miller explained that after vaccination, it takes about two weeks before someone creates immunity that protects against infection.

“It is therefore important to maintain public health precautions, such as masking, especially in the first few weeks after a vaccine has been administered,” Miller said.

A Johns Hopkins University website that regularly answers questions about vaccines says that masks should still be worn, and even after vaccination, physical distance should be done.

“The vaccine is not 100 percent effective and we do not yet know if someone who has been vaccinated can develop asymptomatic infection and transmit the virus,” says Johns Hopkins.

McNagny of the University of British Columbia confirmed that the recommendation to continue wearing a mask is in part “to ensure you have had time to generate a protective response to the vaccine.”

He said the claim that the Covid-19 vaccine would make you contagious “completely fake”, saying that it would definitely not make you more contagious and would probably be less contagious if you were exposed to the virus. ”

Studies are underway to confirm whether Covid-19 vaccines reduce transmission, but experts warn that it is more difficult to carry out than research that only addresses whether the vaccine protects against infection.

CDC says Covid-19 vaccines have killed hundreds of people

Saccoccia refers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Reporting System for Vaccination Against Adverse Events (VAERS) to state: associated with the Covid vaccine. only in the United States. ”

The VAERS website accepts reports on a largely voluntary basis from healthcare providers, vaccine manufacturers and the general public. It is said that the reports may contain inaccurate or incomplete information and ‘alone cannot be used to determine whether a vaccine has caused or contributed to an adverse event or disease.’

CDC spokesman Curtis Gill was contacted by AFP for a previous investigation and said: “VAERS does not determine whether the deaths were caused by the Covid-19 vaccine.”

Some of the “side effects” reported may be true side effects to the vaccine, while others may be accidental and may not be linked to the chance, Gill said.

The CDC says on its website that VAERS has so far not found any patterns in cause of death indicating a safety issue with Covid-19 vaccines.

Roderick Slavcev, associate professor at the University of Waterloo’s School of Pharmacy, said deaths are inevitable if you track down millions of vaccinated individuals. But he agrees with the CDC’s conclusion that “these deaths in no way linked a pattern or safety concern to the administration of vaccines.”

No vaccine is 100 percent safe and effective, said Thompson of the University of Toronto, who added that the Covid-19 shots look just as reliable as most other vaccines.

“And certainly, the health risk of Covid-19 is much greater than for any vaccine currently approved for use,” Thompson said.

Since the start of the pandemic, AFP Fact Check has dismissed numerous inaccurate allegations about the coronavirus, which causes Covid-19, here.

The pandemic has killed more than 2.5 million people around the world.