COVID-19 Has Brought out the Best – and Worst – in Humanity
Two years of pandemic-induced fear and lockdowns have made humans a little, shall we say, desperate? Driven by fear over the novel coronavirus that has already taken the lives of more than 5 million global citizens, or under political pressure, human nature’s stranger idiosyncrasies have been revealed. Here’s a look at some of the ways in which people have responded to COVID-19.
Vaccine Regret
You’ve heard of vaccine hesitancy. Now, there is vaccine regret. As companies, and the government, began to implement vaccine mandates, BioSpace put a poll surveying our readers' thoughts on the subject. Of respondents who said they were unvaccinated, 80% said they would resign if required to get the vaccine. A KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor question elicited a similar response, with 7 in 10 unvaccinated workers saying they would take this step. However, only 1 in 20 say they actually have. It appears that some of these individuals are experiencing vaccine regret and looking for ways to reverse it.
A TikTok video went “viral” in November, claiming that vaccine regretters should take complex “detox” baths featuring ingredients such as borax. The video, posted by an osteopathic doctor named Carrie Madej, DO, also recommended baking soda and Epsom salts to remove the “radiation” and bentonite clay to remove the “poison”. The borax’s job was to “take nanotechnologies out of you.”
Other ideas from the similarly enlightened have included high-fat detox diets to “bind the toxins” in the vaccines and cupping the site of the injection in order to remove the vaccine. Still others have advocated for prophylactic doses of ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine to counteract what they believe to be the negative effects of the vaccine on the immune system.
None of this will work, of course. Also, it’s completely unnecessary.
“It is not possible to “detox” from the vaccine but luckily, there is no need to do this given their safety,” Dr. Monica Gandhi, M.D., an infectious diseases doctor and professor of medicine at UC San Francisco, told BioSpace. “The mRNA and DNA vaccines provide the individual with a small piece of genetic material that the vaccinated takes up and uses their own capability to make into the spike protein of the COVID virus. Your body then raises an immune response against that spike protein. The genetic material and the spike protein rapidly get degraded in your body and goes away so it cannot cause long-term safety issues.”
“Seriously, y’all. Stop it.”
Speaking of Ivermectin, that’s another issue. While the drug is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat and prevent parasite infections, the agency has been abundantly clear that it is not authorized for treating or preventing COVID-19. As of September, the FDA said that currently available data do not show ivermectin is effective against COVID-19, and that the “use of animal ivermectin for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19 in humans is dangerous.”
This did not, however, stop several people – particularly in Mississippi, whose health network was forced to issue an alert – from ingesting the livestock formulation of the drug. In fact, the FDA followed up with a statement on Twitter that read, “You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y'all. Stop it.” The tweet went on to say that “using Ivermectin to treat COVID-19 can be dangerous and even lethal.”
Still, Ivermectin has been used throughout Latin America as well for this purpose. The interest stemmed from a preprint study that reported ivermectin significantly reduced COVID-19 deaths. However, glaring flaws were found in the study, including plagiarism, and it was later retracted. Since then, other studies have been conducted on the drug’s efficacy in treating COVID-19, but they have been small in nature and inconclusive. While the research – and controversy surrounding ivermectin – continues, one thing is for certain: It is not a good idea to ingest the livestock formulation for any reason.
Don’t Drink Bleach for COVID-19
Then, there was this doozy. On April 23, 2020, former President Donald Trump held a press conference where he encouraged the White House task force to study the injection of bleach to fight COVID-19.
While Trump claimed afterward that he was being “sarcastic”, it appears the damage was already done. Data from the American Association of Poison Control Centers showed a rise in accidental poisonings – particularly of bleach – following the suggestion. In April, including the week following Trump’s comments, the increase was 121% compared to April of 2019. A rise in poisoning cases from January to March 2020 over the previous year indicates the unfortunate repercussions of people trying to protect themselves by sanitizing surfaces, groceries and smartphones and inhaling the fumes.
No, the COVID-19 Vaccines do NOT Contain Microchips
One of the most outrageous myths – that the COVID-19 vaccines contain a tracking microchip – has been making the rounds on social media at different times. TikTok, again, is the culprit. The idea is that the government and global power figures such as Bill Gates would be able to track vaccine recipients due to a secretly implanted microchip. But, logistics debunk this one pretty quickly.
“That’s just not possible as far as the size that would be required for that microchip,” Dr. Matt Laurens, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the University of Maryland School of Medicine told CNBC. Laurens was a co-investigator in the trials for the Moderna and Novavax vaccines. “Second, that microchip would have to have an associated power source, and then in addition, that power source would have to transmit a signal through at least an inch of muscle and fat and skin to a remote device, which again, just doesn’t make sense.”
Despite these challenges, in a July 2021 poll of 1500 American adults, 20% believed there was at least a chance this could be true. The U.K. also fell victim to this conspiracy theory. In 2020, false claims of the vaccine being connected to the 5G network inspired 133 arson attacks on telecommunications equipment, according to Mobile UK. The industry group also said it led to 300 incidents of staff being verbally and physically abused.
California Parents Face Misdemeanor Charge
The Delta variant has been ravaging the U.S., and much of the world, since the beginning of the summer. A recently published study conducted by the University of Toronto showed that Delta had a 235% increased risk of ICU admission and a 133% higher risk of death than the original SARS CoV-2 virus. Yet, a pair of parents in Northern California sent their child, who had tested positive for COVID-19, to school in violation of the Marin County school board’s isolation and quarantine policy. This led to an outbreak in the school, and the guaranteeing of 75 classmates. The parents could face a misdemeanor charge.
Behavior Contrary to the Numbers
As of November 23, the U.S. had vaccinated 59.4% of its population against COVID-19. On August 21, 2001, at the height of Delta's destruction, the death rate among the unvaccinated in the U.S. was 12.97, compared to 1.98 for the fully vaccinated.
And still, the following is true:
According to a survey by the U.S. Census Bureau, 59.2% of American adults 18 and above who have not yet received a COVID-19 vaccine, will either probably or definitely not get one. The most common reason stated was possible side effects. That’s fair. Except, anaphylaxis has occurred in approximately 2 to 5 people per million vaccinated in the U.S., and of the more than 16.4 million doses of the Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) vaccine distributed as of November 24, the CDC and FDA had identified just 54 confirmed reports of Thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS). With the Moderna vaccine, there have been only 2 cases of TTS confirmed out of more than 437 million doses administered. In comparison, 2,107 people died from COVID-19 in the U.S. on December 3. These are the numbers.