Vaccines for COVID-19

The news has been full of stories about the main COVID-19 vaccines being developed and some countries have already started their COVID-19 vaccine roll-out.

But in this age of ‘fake news’ and viral social media, we know that there are many conspiracy theories out there about:

Ok, we know that some governments can sometimes be seen to do strange things, but we are willing to bet the farm that vaccination against COVID-19 is not one of them.

But we do want you to think about the history of human disease and medical science.
It’s a fact that certain diseases which used to kill millions of people every year have been effectively wiped out due to vaccination programmes.

Measles, polio, rubella, tetanus – ask your grandmother about the time when South Africa had a polio outbreak and people had to stay away from school and remain indoors for months.

It happened before.

Vaccines effectively killed the diseases that are trying to kill us.

A virus is a highly infectious disease that lives off a host (that’s us). When the virus is undeterred by any medical intervention, it can grow stronger and mutate or change into a different type of virus. If it’s not interfered with at all, it will eventually grow so strong that it will kill most of its hosts (that’s us) and will have to find a new host (maybe an animal) because there won’t be any humans left to live off.

So, something has to be done to interrupt the lifecycle and growth of a virus. That’s what a vaccine is.

Basically, a vaccine stimulates the body to produce fighter cells that ward off the invading disease. If a vaccinated person come into contact with the disease, his or her immune system weakens and kills it. This means that the person doesn’t pass the disease on to their family and friends. It dies where the vaccine is administered.

Eventually, if enough people are vaccinated, the disease itself becomes manageable because it can’t be transmitted from host to host and grow stronger.

The vaccines are there to help stimulate your immune system so that you become an active part of barring COVID-19 from growing stronger and killing more people.

We know that on social media people think they are sharing the real truth about the news. We know that everyone is a Facebook ‘expert’. We just want you to think carefully about WHY any of the following myths would possibly be true:

MYTH: The COVID-19 vaccine is:

I trust the vaccine, and I want to have one.

South Africa is rolling out its vaccine programme in 2021. The aim is to vaccinate 67% of the population to achieve herd immunity (i.e. so that we stop infecting each other). There will be ways to book a slot or obtain a vaccine shot if you fall into a certain high-risk group. As this is a very recent development, we suggest that you stay informed through a reliable news source. Don’t get your facts from Facebook Fanie or Funa; they are really not experts.

For updated information about South Africa’s vaccine roll-out strategy, go to:
https://sacoronavirus.co.za/2021/01/12/what-does-south-africas-covid-vaccine-roll-out-plan-say/