Health, 16.09.2021

Vaccination claims (Part 1) ‘Vaccinated people also infect other people’

When it comes to vaccination, things quickly become emotional. The editorial team has studied statements that have been sent to them – and examined whether they are facts, myths or errors. Part 1 can be read below.

1. "I trust my body more than I trust the government. If I catch Corona, my body will adapt itself and form antibodies. 500 years ago, there was no vaccine either, and all my ancestors survived all the viruses."
That’s true, like many other things there were no vaccines 500 years ago. The vaccination principle was only discovered 225 years ago. In this, our body is stimulated to develop its own natural defence substances by introducing a mild or fake form of a virus into the body.

So that when the virus really comes, the defence system is switched on immediately. Through this precaution, deadly diseases such as smallpox or polio were able to be defeated. And no, the body and its immune system do not have an answer to every disease, virus and bacterium.

It therefore needs either drugs against the disease or, even better, a vaccination, which doesn’t allow the disease to develop at all. Because some viral infections can be fatal.

2. "Vaccinated people also infect other people, just like unvaccinated people. And they also suffer more severe cases of the disease."
The first point is absolutely true. The viral load carried by  vaccinated people who nevertheless become infected is just as high as that of unvaccinated people. But it sinks much faster, as the body already has antibodies in the blood to defend it. And precisely because of these antibodies, vaccinated people also have less severe cases of the disease.

It is true, however, that older people in particular sometimes still need to be hospitalised. Their immune system has probably produced too few antibodies following the vaccination. This also happens with other age groups, because the vaccination is also not perfect, but does provide sufficient protection for about 9 out of 10 people.

That's a lot compared to the flu shot, for example (only 2 to 6 out of 10 people). The current figures are showing the effect of the vaccination: although the delta mutation is more dangerous, there are significantly fewer deaths in proportion to the daily case numbers than last year, when no one (especially the elderly) has been vaccinated.

The "gene therapy" rumour is hardly circulating anymore, but many people still distrust the mRNA vaccine.
Salvatore Di Nolfi

3. "Why hasn't anything been found against the HI virus yet, but things suddenly went so fast with Corona?"

Soon after the first outbreak of Sars-CoV-2 in China, it was clear that this would become a global threat. As never before in history, an effort was made by science, medicine, industry and politics to develop an antidote. Among other things, the mRNA technology, which has been researched for some time and is now being used in Switzerland, was used for this purpose.

The situation was different with the outbreak of AIDS. They were also looking for a vaccine, but the virus is more complex. In addition, research succeeded in developing drugs against the disease, which was initially fatal. The therapies worked well, and there are hardly any infections anymore. The pressure to develop a vaccine is therefore no longer so great. Nevertheless, there could possibly be an mRNA HIV vaccination in the future.

4. "Up to now, no doctor has been able to guarantee me that the vaccination is 100% non harmful."
If you do find such a doctor, don’t trust him. This cannot be guaranteed for any vaccination or any drugs. Drugs in particular often have strong side effects, which are accepted because of the desired effect. In the case of vaccinations, the requirements are higher, because the patient is not (yet) ill.

In some rare cases, corona vaccinations lead to serious side effects, such as inflammation of the heart muscle, in young men in particular (2.4 cases per 100,000, 95% of them only with a short hospital stay according to data from Israel) or to an allergic reaction. A drug or vaccine is only approved and recommended if the benefits are much higher than the potential risk.

Allergic reactions can thereby be treated well with antihistamines – and the risk of inflammation of the heart muscle is much greater in the case of a corona infection, and actually occurs in eleven cases per 100,000. Possible damage to the heart is by no means the only risk of an infection.

5. "The certificate requirement restricts the freedoms of citizens."
Agreed. This restriction is based on the " Special Situation Covid-19 Regulation " and is thereby legal. It will only last as long as the hospitals are at their limits. The question that certificate critics should be asked is: What else should the Federal Council have done in the current situation, with overloaded intensive care units, in order to reduce hospitalisations?

6. "Why are people being indirectly forced to vaccinate? Every time I'm forced to do something, I know something is rotten."
See also the previous answer. What should a state do to overcome a crisis and prevent more people from dying in hospitals because the quality of treatment would thereby suffer? By the way, fines are also used to indirectly force you to buckle up in the car.