COVID-19 National Public Education Campaign

Guidance on Addressing Common Vaccine Concerns from the We Can Do This Campaign

Many people still have questions or hesitations about the COVID-19 vaccines. Often these concerns arise from health misinformation – information that is false, inaccurate, or misleading according to the best available evidence at the time. The We Can Do This campaign’s goal is to help address these narratives by sharing accurate information about the COVID-19 vaccines in the most effective ways possible. Based on research, we have developed a point of view that addressing some questions helps people overcome hesitancy, while addressing others reinforces fears. Below is our current guidance on how to address the most common concerns.

Vaccine Concerns to Address Proactively In both our research and in publicly available polling, certain concerns are increasingly common among people who are on the fence about whether to get a COVID-19 vaccine. At this point, these concerns are widespread enough that we believe we should address them proactively. Speaking directly to these concerns may have a meaningful impact on vaccination rates, and there is low risk of amplifying them to people who had not previously heard related misinformation. Examples include: • “The vaccine causes infertility.” • “We don’t know enough about potential long-term side effects of the vaccine.” • “If you have had COVID, you do not need the vaccine.”

Vaccine Concerns to Address When Asked People who report no intention of getting vaccinated tend to cite a different set of vaccine concerns. In many cases, our hypothesis is that these concerns are symptoms of ideological opposition to the vaccine and/or distrust of government. As a result, addressing these concerns may not be as useful in informing an individual’s decision to get vaccinated. In fact, proactively raising these misconceptions can serve to amplify them and decrease vaccine confidence for people who had not previously heard this health misinformation. While we must always be prepared with the facts to address any and every concern, we do not recommend proactively raising certain falsehoods. Example include: • “Microchips are in the vaccines.” • "The vaccines make people magnetic.” • “The vaccines contain fetal tissue.” • “The vaccine alters DNA.”

General Guidelines for Addressing Concerns: • We do not believe it is productive to publicly refer to any of these concerns as “myths.” These are genuine questions that need to be treated as such. • It may not be productive to proactively bring up the second group of concerns listed above. It is very difficult to convince someone that these beliefs are not true, and attempting to change people’s minds by rebuking them publicly can lead to the proliferation of health misinformation. • Speaking positively about the facts around vaccines saving lives – unrelated to specific concerns – still can inform peoples’ decisions to get vaccinated and lower risk of backlash. • During the pandemic, at times public education about the vaccines from the government – federal, state, or local – has caused backlash. Federal, state, and local governments can be effective messengers, depending on the audience, but using multiple sources to inform people about the COVID-19 vaccines is critical. Trusted messengers such as educators, clinicians, celebrities, friends, and family have an essential role to play. These messengers must be equipped with the most up-to-date information about COVID-19 vaccines. • The Office of the Surgeon General recently identified health misinformation as an urgent public health threat. Below, the Office highlights commons concerns and responses to inform how trusted messengers may speak with their communities.

August 16, 2021

Top COVID-19 Vaccine Questions & Answers from the Office of the Surgeon General Questions trusted messengers should address proactively

Do COVID-19 vaccines affect fertility? • No, they do not. There is no evidence that COVID-19 vaccines cause fertility problems, in women or men. If you are trying to become pregnant now or want to get pregnant in the future, you can and should receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Are the vaccines safe for people who are currently pregnant or breastfeeding? • Yes, vaccines are safe for people who are pregnant or breastfeeding. COVID-19 vaccination is recommended for all people 12 years and older, including people who are pregnant, breastfeeding, trying to get pregnant now, or might become pregnant in the future. • There is no evidence of miscarriages, stillbirths, or preterm births linked to the vaccines. • In fact, getting vaccinated is especially important for pregnant people who have a higher risk of complications from COVID-19. Additionally, a recent study found antibodies against COVID-19 in babies born to vaccinated people, which might help protect the babies. And recent reports indicate that vaccinated breastfeeding people have antibodies in their breastmilk, which may also help protect their babies. Read more about vaccinations and pregnancy / breastfeeding here.

Do COVID-19 vaccines cause long-term health effects? • More than 340 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been given in the U.S. between December 2020 and July 2021. No long-term side effects have been detected. Even a mild case of COVID-19, however, can leave you with symptoms for months, including difficulty breathing, brain fog, and headaches – a condition called “long COVID.” Read more about long COVID.

If I’ve had COVID, do I need to get vaccinated? • Yes, you should get a COVID-19 vaccine even if you’ve already had COVID-19. Having had COVID-19 does not necessarily protect you against catching it again. In fact, a recent study has shown that unvaccinated individuals are more than twice as likely to be reinfected with COVID-19 than those who had COVID-19 and then got vaccinated. Especially with the Delta variant, it is so important to receive a vaccine to protect yourself and your loved ones.

2

Questions trusted messengers should be prepared to answer, but not raise proactively

Will a COVID-19 vaccine alter my DNA?

• No. COVID-19 vaccines do not change or interact with your DNA in any way. Learn more about mRNA vaccines with this infographic.

Can a COVID-19 vaccine make me sick with COVID-19? • No. None of the COVID-19 vaccines available in the United States contain the live virus that causes COVID-19. This means that a COVID-19 vaccine cannot make you sick with COVID-19. Some people do experience short- term side effects for a few days after vaccination, such as chills, tiredness, headache, and soreness at the injection site. These side effects are normal and are signs that the vaccine is working. They should go away within a few days.

How can we know the vaccines are safe and effective if they have only been authorized for emergency use? • The FDA has authorized the use of three vaccines in response to the public health emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Emergency use authorizations get vaccines distributed faster than the formal FDA approval process without skipping any mandatory safety checks. Large clinical trials demonstrated that the vaccines were safe and effective, and real-world experience has confirmed those findings.

Can receiving a COVID-19 vaccine cause you to be magnetic?

• No. Receiving a COVID-19 vaccine will not make you magnetic. COVID-19 vaccines do not contain ingredients that can or would produce an electromagnetic field. All COVID-19 vaccines are free from metals.

What are the ingredients of the COVID-19 vaccines? Do they include microchips or fetal cells?

• The active ingredient, or component, in the three FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccines is a single- stranded molecule that leads the body to briefly make a protein normally found on the surface of the virus that causes COVID-19. The body recognizes that protein and creates a strong immune response that teaches your immune system to protect against COVID-19. After vaccination, the body breaks down the vaccine components and gets rid of them within about 36 hours. • There are some other components in the vaccines as well, such as lipids and salts that help the vaccines protect you. Importantly, none of the COVID-19 vaccines contain eggs, gelatin, or latex, and they’re free from heavy metals. There are no microchips or fetal cells in the vaccines. Vaccination mimics the natural process your body uses every day to produce immune responses to germs in the environment. • Read more about the COVID-19 vaccines authorized for use in the United States and find the full list of ingredients for each here: o Pfizer-BioNTech; Moderna; Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen

3