​Covid-19 Vaccines and the Fear Surrounding Them

By Lex Cornell 
 
In America, there is a lot of fear and anxiety around getting the Covid-19 vaccine. Most teenagers look towards social media for answers to their questions. It leads to teens being uninformed or misinformed about what is in the vaccine and how it will affect their bodies. Teenagers get their information from people that they feel could be giving out truthful information, such as influencers, celebrities, and singers.  But it’s best to do your own research.

Many people are unsure how the vaccine works. In short, the Covid-19 vaccine works similarly to most other vaccines. According to the CDC (Center of Disease Control), the Covid-19 vaccines are made with live cells of the Covid-19 virus. The cells are mRNA modified to be harmless, also known as a “spike protein.” The vaccine is given in your upper arm muscle and starts to make the protein piece. After the protein piece, it starts to break down its instructions (mRNA). Once that happens, your immune system recognizes that the protein doesn’t belong there. The immune response starts to happen and your body makes antibodies against the virus. 

Another part of the vaccine that most people don’t know or understand is what’s in the vaccine? In the vaccine, many things provide help to protect against the virus. Many parts of the vaccine are naturally occurring within your body, such as sucrose which is sugar. According to the CDC, this is what's in the Covid-19 vaccine, “nucleoside-modified mRNA, encoding the viral spike (S) glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2, 2[(polyethylene glycol (PEG))-2000]-N, N-di-tetradecyl acetamide, 1,2-stearoyl-sn-glycerol-3-phosphocholine, Cholesterol, Sodium chloride, Monobasic potassium phosphate, Potassium chloride, Dibasic sodium phosphate dihydrate, and Sucrose.” They also spoke on what is not in the vaccine. None of the vaccines contain eggs, gelatin, latex, or preservatives. All Covid-19 vaccines are free from metals such as iron, nickel, cobalt, lithium, rare earth alloys, or any manufactured products such as microelectronics, electrodes, carbon nanotubes, or nanowire semiconductors. 

Now through all of this, you might be thinking how was this approved or how is it allowed for minors to have this vaccine? Also from the CDC, they talked about the process of how the Covid-19 vaccine was approved for minors. “The FDA reviewed a study of more than 2,200 U.S. children ages 12 through 15. Of this group, about half were given the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. The other children were given an inactive (placebo) shot. A week after the second dose was given, research showed no cases of COVID-19 in the 1,005 children given the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Among 978 children given the placebo, there were 16 cases of COVID-19. None of the children had previously been diagnosed with COVID-19. The results suggest that the vaccine is 100% effective at preventing COVID-19 in this age group.”
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Overall if everyone gets the vaccine, not only are they helping lower the spread of Covid-19 and lowering the rate of how fast the virus evolves or mutates, but also helping the people who are sick or can’t get the Covid-19 vaccine due to their situation.