By Pamela Cruz, with the support of Hans Leguizamo, Constanza Mazzotti, Anna Lee Mraz, Manuel Ortiz and the members of the P360P community journalism workshop.
Despite 92.6 percent of San Mateo County's eligible population being vaccinated, misinformation and fears continue to surround the COVID-19 vaccine among the Latino community.
For María Segovia, a participant in the Peninsula 360 Press [P360P] community journalism workshop and a resident of Redwood City, COVID vaccine myths continue to circulate with the same force on social media, especially on Facebook and Instagram.
"One of the most heard to date is that vaccines have a chip so they can locate us. The other is that they leave us sterile and that is also still heard both on social media and from people who continue to talk," he said.
However, and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), COVID-19 vaccines do not contain microchips: they were created to fight diseases and are not administered to track your movements.
Vaccines work by stimulating your immune system to produce antibodies, just as it would if you were exposed to the disease. After you get vaccinated, you develop immunity to that disease without having to have had it.
The SARS-CoV-2 virus has undoubtedly put human beings and their capacity to believe in science and its advances to the test. With the arrival of not one, but several vaccines to combat COVID-19, the beliefs, fears and doubts of all communities, including the Latino community, came to the surface.
Roberto Cruz, a volunteer at the nonprofit Casa Círculo Cultural, said he has also continued to hear myths about the COVID vaccine, in his case, those about infertility and DNA alteration, which continue to be widely heard and highlighted, especially on Facebook.
The CDC has noted that COVID-19 vaccines do not modify or interact with DNA in any way.
Both messenger RNA (mRNA) and viral vector vaccines against COVID-19 deliver instructions ‒genetic material‒ to our cells to begin generating protection against the virus that causes COVID-19.
Once the body produces an immune response, it discards all vaccine ingredients.
The genetic material provided by mRNA vaccines never enters the nucleus of the cell, which is where our DNA is housed.
Viral vector vaccines against COVID-19 deliver genetic material to the nucleus of the cell so that it can generate protection against the disease. However, the viral vector does not have the machinery necessary to integrate its genetic material into our DNA, so it cannot alter it.
Different types of vaccines work in different ways to provide protection. But with all types of vaccines, your body is left with a supply of “memory” T cells, as well as B cells that will remember how to fight that virus in the future.
While it is true that social media has been very useful in spreading reliable and truthful information, it has also been useful in misinforming people about the disease that has claimed the lives of almost 6 million people worldwide, and the vaccines that combat it.
Regarding fertility, both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the CDC have stated that there is currently no evidence to show that any vaccine, including those against COVID-19, causes fertility problems in women or men.
The COVID-19 vaccine is also recommended for people who are pregnant, trying to get pregnant or planning to become pregnant in the future, as well as their partners.
The WHO has also pointed out that clinical trials of the already approved vaccines have confirmed that they do not cause infertility.
Celene Gómez, a student in P360P's community journalism workshop, agreed that myths and rumors about the COVID-19 vaccine continue. Given this, and having lost loved ones due to the disease, she called for avoiding misinformation.
"I have had loved ones who have died from COVID-19 and I think I would be much more afraid of dying than of getting the vaccine. I would recommend everyone to get it. There is a lot of fake news, but it is better to find out for yourself and get it," she said.
The director and founder of the Casa Círculo Cultural organization, located in the heart of Redwood City, Verónica Escámez, knows and understands firsthand that myths about vaccines continue to be a barrier in the Latino community to ensure that, above all, children are immunized.
«The most important myth, or at least the one we hear the most in the organization, is that they are going to put a chip in them… unfortunately, that is what we hear the most here. I have heard it everywhere, from people who do not want to get vaccinated, because generally we ask all children to get vaccinated and some parents say they do not want to vaccinate them because through the children they are going to put a chip in them and they will be located, especially if they do not have documents to live in the United States and they are afraid of being detained,» she stressed in an interview.
He added that these types of ideas and beliefs have been spread through social media, especially on Facebook.
"We have seen it on social media, because it is everywhere, and we have also heard it from some who were told, and from others, that this is what can happen, even though they are already vaccinated, they are still afraid."
According to a brief survey conducted among Redwood City residents, other myths that still persist among the Latino community are that COVID-19 vaccines are made from dead human fetuses and/or include ingredients that are dangerous for humans.
The reality is that both the WHO and the CDC detail that virtually all of the ingredients included in COVID-19 vaccines are found in many foods, such as fats, sugars, and salts.
The exact ingredients of each vaccine vary depending on the manufacturer.
The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines also contain messenger RNA, while the Johnson & Johnson/Janssen vaccine contains a harmless version of a virus unrelated to the virus that causes COVID-19.
All of them give instructions to the body's cells to generate an immune response.
This response provides protection to users from getting sick from COVID-19 in the future. Once the body produces an immune response, it discards all the ingredients of the vaccine, just as it would discard any information that the cells no longer need. This process is part of the normal functioning of the body.
Therefore, COVID-19 vaccines DO NOT contain ingredients such as preservatives, tissues – such as fetal cells from abortions – antibiotics, food proteins, drugs, latex or metals.
These myths are compounded by the fact that COVID-19 vaccines contain magnetite and therefore magnetize people.
However, getting vaccinated against COVID-19 does not magnetize you, not even in the vaccination area, which is usually the arm, the CDC details.
COVID-19 vaccines do not contain ingredients that can produce an electromagnetic field at the injection site or anywhere else in the body, as they do not contain metals.
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