Dr Gabriel UguruTHERE are so many videos and articles on the web attacking the COVID-19 vaccines and discouraging people from protecting themselves against the virus. Scientists and governments have been trying to combat these negative attitudes towards vaccines. To chip in my tuppence-worth in the fight against misinformation and disinformation with regards to the COVID-19 vaccines, this article shall attempt to address some of the conspiracy theories and advance reasons why you should get yourself vaccinated.
What is a conspiracy theory? It is a belief that a mysterious occurrence is caused by a powerful, shadowy and sinister person/s or organisation. This often results in opposition to conventional thinking, and progressively morph into paranoia, propaganda and falsification of facts. Analytical thinking is replaced by illogicality and at times ludicrous and fanciful views. In simple terms, conspiracy theory is an alternative narrative to the real event. The alternative to truth is a lie. Most people lie for various reasons, to avoid embarrassment, for financial or material gains, to malign others or discredit an event, to curry favour, to feel important, etc. The list is endless. For whatever reasons people lie, so also are the reasons people advance conspiracy theories. In many instances people propagating conspiracy theories and their followers
are ignorant of the facts and just parrot what they have been told or hear in social media circles.
Let’s mention a few of these conspiracy theories:
- Jesus did not actually rise from the dead, his body was stolen by his disciples!
2. Jesus did not die on the cross, he switched with somebody else (notably Judas Iscariot or Joseph of Arimathaea) who died in his place while he escaped with Mary Magdalene to present-day France, where he raised a family!
3. The earth is flat and not round.
4. Adolf Hitler did not commit suicide in the Berlin bunker but escaped to South America (Argentina), and is being kept alive up to date by replacing his blood with that of virgins!
5. The Jews were not actually murdered by the Nazis. It was all a lie perpetuated by the World Jewish Organisation. The naked dead bodies of millions of people staked like firewoods, the crematoria and the heaps of ashes from burnt corpses were all forgeries!
6. John F Kennedy was killed by the CIA!
7. Marilyn Monroe did not die of a drug overdose but was murdered by the CIA!
8. Princess Diana did not die of a car accident but was killed by MI5, the British (domestic) Secret Service, because she was pregnant with her Egyptian lover’s
(Dodi Fayed) child!
9. 9/11 was engineered by the CIA and was not an act of terrorism by Osama Bin
Ladin’s Al Quaeda!
10. Bill Gates’ initiative in collaboration with the World Health Organisation to eradicate polio by vaccination was a ruse to reduce the populations of Asia and Africa by making children impotent!
11. Mohammed Buhari, the Nigerian President, died in a London hospital and was cloned. The person ruling Nigeria now is a clone!
12. Coronavirus was engineered in the lab by the Illuminati!
13. Bill Gates’ commendable initiative in association with the World Health Organisation to provide the COVID-19 vaccines to everybody is an attempt at world domination designed to prepare the way for the AntiChrist. The vaccines
are microchipped to make it easier for Bill Gates and the AntiChrist to control and issue you instructions!
14. Bill Gates is an AntiChrist and the world is being run by the Illuminati!
15. There is nothing like global warming. It is a hoax put up by scientists – thanks a lot, Donald Trump!
16. The COVID-19 vaccine will take over your innate (natural) immune system and is causing the virus to mutate to a dangerous level!
For a lie to be believable, it must contain an element of truth. The same also applies to conspiracy theories. There is always an expert or group of experts willing to swear and defend the theory! Experts are two a dime. And people willing to say anything either for money or for aggrandisement are legions nowadays. Let’s examine one of the conspiracy theories making the rounds, which claims that the COVID-19 vaccines will take over your innate immune system.
Nature uniquely designed your body so that it can function properly by having defensive mechanisms to protect it against external invasions. Inside your body are many things that protect the body from diseases. Some are cells that engulf invaders and digest them, while others are chemicals that destroy invaders. The invader is called an antigen and your innate or natural defensive mechanism is called an
antibody. Each antigen has a receptor (i.e. a docking or recognition site where an antibody attaches) so that when your body senses an invader (by way of headaches, coughing, fever, etc.), a defender/s familiar with the microorganism causing the problem, is sent to that particular site to deal with it. A vaccine does not kill the invader rather what a vaccine does is to sensitise your immune system and keep it in preparedness by mimicking (imitating) an invader. The immune system by this process produces antibodies that attack the bacterial or viral component of the vaccine. By doing this it retains a memory of the disease so that when the body is attacked by the actual bacterium or virus, which the vaccine is made from, the immune system automatically recognises it and destroys it, thus preventing you from developing an infection. This training process by the vaccine and memory retention by your immune system do not in any way constitute a replacement of your immune system by the vaccine!
A scenario called the “cytokine storm” is being capitalised upon by conspiracy theorists to also mean a vaccine replacing your immune system. Several cases have been reported about Coronavirus infection resulting in cytokine storm. Wait a sec! I shall tell you all about cytokine storm! Cytokines are communicating molecules in your body. They allow the cells in your body to talk to each other and are especially important in immune responses. Autoimmunity can result when your immune system mounts a reaction against your cells and tissues. This is caused by cytokines, and happened during a cytokine storm. The condition is generated by the immune response whether natural or vaccine-induced responses, and involves the excess release of cytokines. Such condition is seen in autoimmune diseases like juvenile arthritis and lupus (inflammation of the joints and facial rash). Cytokine storm is like a soldier going mad in the thick of battle. The soldier would shoot both the enemy soldiers and those from his own side! This can happen in severe Coronavirus infection, and the signs are having difficulty breathing and fever. This scenario does not by any stretch of the imagination constitute a takeover of your immune system by the vaccine!
One other thing that may happen in severe cases of Coronavirus infection is that even though the immune system was able to clear the virus, some may still persist in either the brain or the digestive system or elsewhere in the body and be replicating at very low level but enough to cause a condition called “Long-time effects of Coronavirus or
Long COVID-19” or simply “post-Coronavirus syndrome”. It is a condition which results in debilitating symptoms like tiredness. This viral persistence in the body is called a viral reservoir. Scientists are still battling to understand the condition leading up to post-Coronavirus syndrome i.e. Long COVID-19.
Without a vaccine, your immune system will be at basal (minimum) level so that if your body suddenly gets flooded by invaders before it could marshal out its defences, it would be overwhelmed. Imagine your body getting flooded with millions of bacterial or viral cells, which multiplied within hours into billions. But if your immune systems are prepped up, they will immediately mop up the invader/s. That’s where a vaccine comes in handy, and that’s why you should take up the Covid-19 vaccine! The vaccine is there to train your immune system to be fit and ready in order to tackle the virus should your body be invaded by it.
Another conspiracy theory claimed that the COVID-19 vaccines are putting pressure on the virus and causing it to mutate. While this may be true in some ways, mutations are generally natural. Mutations are ways by which an organism evolves by defending itself, attacking others, evading destruction or enhancing its capabilities. Most of these mutations are what is called “nonsense” mutations (i.e. of little or no use to the organism), while only a few mutations (not nonsense mutations!) give the organism fitness by enhancing its ability to survive and evolve. We often in the lab use mutations to target key genes in an organism so that it’s ability to secret a particular compound is improved. So mutations are not all that bad! Any number of things can cause an organism to mutate: high temperatures, UV lights, chemicals, etc.
In another claim, conspiracy theory enthusiasts said that the vaccines were microchipped so that Bill Gate or the Illuminati would be able to control and send you messages! What an absurd notion! People advancing or believing in this baloney did not stop to think that the vaccines are easily obtainable and anybody curious enough to know the components of the vaccines only needed to subject them to tandem mass spectrometry. This will identify and quantify the different components of any given vaccine. Additionally, how probable is it that all the scientists who worked and/or are still working on the vaccines did not sound the alarm about microchipping the vaccines, or is it conceivable that the scientists are all hand in glove with Bill Gates and the
Illuminati? The people selling you these crazy theories are indirectly calling you a gullible fool and are insulting your intelligence!
Another argument advanced by conspiracy theorists is that the development of the vaccines was rushed and therefore not safe. This is not entirely true. The Oxford group behind the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine had been working on malaria vaccine for years and simply used the malaria vaccine as a template to produce the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine! The processes for the manufacture of vaccines are pretty well established before the Coronavirus pandemic and most of the vaccines are based on traditional vaccine production process. Agreed that the vaccines were not subjected to years of rigorous testing, but given the urgency of the situation, maintaining this line of argument is nothing short of one refusing to face reality.
Conspiracy theorists also argue that the vaccines do not prevent you from dying should you get COVID-19 therefore, there is no point in getting vaccinated. Yes, the vaccine does not to a certain extent prevent you from getting infected by COVID-19 and/or dying, but your chances of catching and/or dying from COVID-19 is much diminished if you were vaccinated compared to an unvaccinated person. We all know that a car seatbelt does not prevent you from having an accident, but it does enhance your chances of survival should you be involved in one. With this knowledge, if you are then making a long-distance travel wouldn’t it be sensible to wear your seatbelt?
In another claim, the conspiracy theorists alleged that vaccination is “the mark of the Beast”, a reference to the Biblical prophesy of signs heralding “the Apocalypse”, specifically the Antichrist. Remember those cookies, which you must accept to explore an internet site? What do you think they are for? Well, if you had surfed the internet, made financial transactions, registered with a hospital, employed, payed taxes, engaged in businesses, currently have a bank account, taken up a loan and/or insurance, have a mortgage, bought things on the internet, currently have a mobile phone, registered with amenity providers, currently have a Facebook account, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, in short if you had interacted with the world in the past in any way and are still interacting, you already have the mark of the Beast! Your details are out there and you are already being monitored and controlled! So if your sole reason for not taking the jab was to avoid surveillance and control, you no longer
have any reason to avoid taking the jab because as I mentioned before, you are already being monitored and controlled as a result of your everyday activities!
If it were anonymity you are seeking for, it is already too late. The use of surveillance cameras is now the norm, especially in the West. On the motorways, every street, supermarket, cinemas, hotels, hospital, restaurant, fast food outlets, petrol stations, etc., there are cameras recording you and passing your details to the relevant authorities. Failure to get the jab because of fear of being tracked and controlled is tantamount to you shooting yourself in the foot!
Millions of people have received the jab and as yet one is yet to hear of any credible report of vaccinated people receiving instructions from Bill Gates. If you do hear voices, then it must be that the dopamine receptor system in your brain is malfunctioning!
Deaths and infections from Coronavirus have substantially decreased compared to the pre-vaccination period. This shows that the vaccines are working and are important in the fight against COVID-19.
But after all is said and done, governments should make more efforts at educating the masses on their approach to COVID-19 issues, incorporate openness and be less averse to criticisms. These measures if implemented will improve public perception of the COVID-19 vaccines – secrecy begat suspicion, and suspicion begat conspiracy!
In conclusion:
- Vaccines do not take over your innate immune system.
- You need a vaccine to train your immune system to recognise and be ready for an invader.
- Mutations in most cases occur naturally and is a way of conferring fitness to the organism.
- If you have the opportunity to take the COVID-19 vaccine, do so. It is to your interest.
- Stop listening or reading conspiracy theories; they are junks designed to mislead and/or harm you!
- Governments and NGOs should redouble their efforts at educating the masses on the dangers of Coronavirus and the importance of vaccination.
The take-home message here is: get yourself vaccinated and help save lives!
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