1.1 If I am healthy, why do I need the vaccine?

COVID-19 affects everyone differently. The medical community reportedly has no idea how to treat long COVID-19 with the least risk and discomfort patients, and recommend the vaccine as a means to prevent this risk. We suggest that you do your own risk-benefit analysis and ask yourself the following questions:

• Do I come into contact with people who could be vulnerable if they caught the virus?

• Will I be travelling to another country in the near future?

• Could anyone I am close with be travelling or visiting vulnerable adults and children?

• If I catch coronavirus, will I be able to self-isolate for 10 days? Will I be able to take time off work and any other commitments?

• If I develop Post-COVID Syndrome (Long COVID), will I be able to adapt my lifestyle to accommodate this?

• Do I have a history of severe allergic reactions that may put me at more risk from getting the vaccine than not?

• Do I have any health complications that would put me more at risk from COVID-19?

1.2 Why do I need the vaccine when the most vulnerable have already had theirs?

 It is your choice whether or not to take the vaccine and we encourage you to do what feels right for you and those around you. 

The current medical consensus recommends that as many people as possible get the vaccine, to promote herd immunity and to end the pandemic. Current research suggests that to eradicate COVID-19, around 80-85% of people need to develop immunity through vaccination or a natural immune response.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-57431420

At the moment in the Hastings & St. Leonards area, around 65% of people have received the first vaccine, and around 50% of people have received a second one. It is likely that communities are still at risk from covid-19, and cases have been increasing in the summer of 2021. 

The Hastings, St. Leonards, and Brighton areas have also seen an increase in cases in recent months due to the Delta variant. See the map below for up-to-date case reports, along with vaccine uptake. 

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/interactive-map/cases 

Also, some people are unable to get the vaccine due to underlying health conditions and allergic reactions, so remain at risk until herd immunity develops.

This aside, not all countries have had the same access to vaccinations as we do in the UK. Bear this in mind if travelling anywhere that you are likely to come across people who may be more vulnerable.

2.1 What is a vaccine?

The word ‘vaccine’ comes from ‘vaccinus’, the latin word for cow. This relates to when people noticed that milkmaids who caught cowpox did not get smallpox – a similar but much deadlier disease. By injecting people with fluids from the cowpox disease, doctors were able to save lives by preventing people from catching smallpox. 

Vaccines were first dismissed by the Royal Society as unscientific, but were accepted and brought into wider use three years later. 

Since then, vaccines have become a mainstay of modern medicine, and have become less invasive and more sophisticated in their technology. 

Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/vaccine-the-words-history-aint-pretty

https://etymology.net/vaccine/

2.2 What is in the COVID-19 Vaccine?

Each vaccine has three key sets of ingredients:

1. mRNA, viral vector, or deactivated virus
   The active ingredient that tells your body what coronavirus looks like so that it can build a defence and immunity, to avoid you catching and getting sick from the real virus. 

2. Lipids
   A few oily fats that sit around the active ingredient to preserve it.  

3. Saline solution
   A ‘buffer’ solution of simple salts and sugar in water to help preserve the vaccine and carry it into the body. 

2.3 What about Side Effects? 

Serious adverse reactions are real, but also rare. Current data suggests that the risk of death or serious illness from Covid far outweighs the risk of serious health complications from vaccination side effects.

Current advice suggests avoiding the vaccine if you are prone to severe allergic reactions, and that you will most likely be safe otherwise. 

Latest UK government statistics suggest that the vaccine has prevented between 7.5 and 8.9 million infections and between 29,000 and 31,800 deaths.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1000512/Vaccine_surveillance_report_-_week_27.pdf

Some people are worried about the newness of the mRNA technology being used by Pfizer and Moderna. 

Because of words like gene therapy, it can seem as though these vaccines have the power to programme our DNA, which can conjure up thoughts of mass control and hidden agendas.  

While we do not know what the future holds for this type of technology, the reality right now appears to be much less scary (and frankly more boring!).

Our immune system remembers things about different diseases and threats, and the structures involved are different from our DNA and genes. Our immune system is kind of like an intelligent suit of armour that keeps us alive by remembering what threats and diseases look like, protecting our bodies inside.

An illustration:

Imagine someone gets a hold of your phone number and starts spamming you with nasty texts and calls. You’d likely want to save the number so you can block it and so that no more spam calls can get through. 

Now let’s say this caller has a list of numbers belonging to your friends and family. If you give them the caller’s number, they can save it into their phones and block it too – before the caller has the chance to make their lives miserable. 

mRNA vaccines work in a similar way. Much like a phone number, our bodies are given a code to make a small piece of the virus and produce an immune response to save into their M-cell and T-cell memory, so they do not have to deal with the actual ‘caller’ (in this case, the virus). mRNA tells the human body how to make a small piece of the virus, which the body then gets rid of and blocks.

This only happens inside our immune cells and does nothing to our DNA. As it stands, mRNA technology can be used to produce an immune response, but does not do anything to change our DNA.

This is similar to how antivirus programmes work on a computer. Once your computer knows what a virus looks like, it can block it without having to deal with the crashes and consequences of receiving the virus. Antivirus updates tell the defence system without affecting the files, folders, and settings inside. 

AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson use a similar mechanism called a viral vector. This involves giving the body a modified version of a different virus (the vector), which delivers similar instructions to the mRNA method. Other vaccine programmes work in similar ways, while some (like SinoVac) use a more traditional form of vaccine, where people are given an inactive form of the virus itself. 

You are not required to bring ID to vaccine clinics, and most pop up clinics have a ‘no questions asked’ policy. Some people are worried about going to get the vaccine due to immigration status, legal status, occupation, etc. Feel free to get in touch if you have any concerns related to this.

This is still under investigation. See the following link for the latest early treatment research on COVID-19: https://c19early.com/ 

Currently there is less evidence for treating Long Covid and this is being considered as a major health problem

We believe this is personal to everyone. We encourage open discussion around this and welcome responses from our audience. Numerous religious leaders and doctors have advocated for the use of the vaccine. 

 I have personal agency over my body and I have the right to decide what goes inside it.

 Absolutely. You should take the vaccine only when you feel ready and should not feel threatened or coerced into taking it, nor should you feel rushed if you need to take some time to decide. In the meantime, we encourage you to do what you can to avoid catching the virus or passing it on to anyone. 

No. Changing our mind is a part of being human. We adapt our opinions based on new information, professional advice, and our peers. 🙂

The Nave is a collective that seeks to create socially conscious art. For this project, we have partnered with East Sussex CCG.
We are a not-for-profit organisation. We are not doctors or medical professionals, and refer you back to the CCG if you have any questions we cannot answer.

We are keen to promote an open conversation and welcome your involvement.

Full disclosure: We are receiving funding from East Sussex CCG, whose objectives are to support vaccination uptake. 

We aim to hold a balanced, nuanced, and critical stance that does not seek to ignore vaccine hesitant viewpoints or to misinform people on either side of the fence

I have my reasons not to trust the government or large corporations. Why should I trust them now?

We get it. Many people feel let down by decisions the government has made, and by difficulties faced in the past. This is a question that we cannot point people towards direct facts, but welcome an open discussion. 

In previous projects The Nave has held a critical stance towards government acts, and will continue work to hold them accountable for harmful actions. 

In relation to the vaccine, this has been a coordinated global effort of scientists, healthcare experts, politicians, and pharmaceutical industries. There is a lot to unpick. For now we refer to the CCG guidance and up-to-date research and return to the evidence that states that the vaccine is safe. 

For what it’s worth, numerous world leaders and billionaires have had a vaccination for COVID-19. This includes Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Boris Johnson, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, and other figures high up in politics, corporations, and financial sectors.

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the largest philanthropic organisation in the world, which has funded several of the vaccine programmes worldwide. They have been praised for their efforts to combat disease on a global scale, and have also been criticised for some of their activities in developing countries.

According to the Gates Foundation website, their mission is ‘to create a world where every person has the opportunity to live a healthy, productive life.’ They also state that they are not allowed to profit from their work due to the structure of the organisation. 

https://www.gatesfoundation.org/about/foundation-faq 

In 2020, a rumour was spread that microchips were being implanted through the vaccine. The origin of this has been traced back to a joke facebook post that was taken seriously by some people. 

This is the first time a global effort has been made to produce a vaccine in this way. The ‘code’ for COVID-19 was released into the public domain as soon as it became available, which allowed researchers to communicate freely rather than compete. mRNA vaccines have been 30 years in the making and non-coded vaccines were ready to go before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. They simply needed to be programmed with the code for the COVID-19 virus. 

The speed of the clinical trials have been reportedly due to a cutting of red tape. Instead of trials being carried out one by one over the course of years, researchers were able to carry them out at the same time over the course of months. 

The vaccine is a product of decades of research on coronaviruses, and on vaccine technologies.

We welcome all opinions and information, and will be adapting this page as new information arrives. Please get in touch with us at info@thenave.co to share your views.

We are keen to have open communication around this. Feel free to get in touch with (thenave) if you’d like to share your views or feel that something we have said is not accurate. We are also keen to hear from people who have had a bad experience with the vaccine. 

You may also wish to speak with East Sussex Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), for further information about the vaccine.