VACCINE SAFETY

CLAIM: We don’t know the long-term effects of the vaccine.

WHO SAID IT: “We have no ideas about the long-term effects of this new mRNA vaccination. … They are essentially mandating a vaccine that they have no idea what’s going to happen four, five, 10 years down the road,” Stubblefield said Tuesday.

FACT CHECK: This claim is unproven. When someone gets a vaccine, it goes into the muscle, which makes a spike protein that travels through the immune system, Dillaha said. The vaccine doesn’t stay in the body — it’s gone within hours or a day and isn’t making any additional protein beyond the initial amount, she said.

“In general we do not see new effects of a vaccine down the road, and so we don’t see long-term side effects because the vaccine’s not in the body,” Dillaha said. “What we could see is effects from the vaccine that started within the first six weeks after the vaccine was given but they have continuous effects down the road. … We don’t see vaccines do something new months down the road that they didn’t do when they were first given.”

She said it was highly unlikely something unexpected would happen to vaccinated people 10 years from now.

CLAIM: The risk of the vaccines outweighs the risks of the disease for people who are not high risk.

WHO SAID IT: “There’s a risk of an enlarged heart and possibly a lifelong condition and very little risk from the disease” for young and healthy people, Sen. Alan Clark, R-Lonsdale, said at Tuesday’s legislative committee meeting.

FACT CHECK: Vaccines have not been associated with an enlarged heart, and “the risk of the vaccine is so much less than the risk of covid-19,” Dillaha said.

There have been reports of myocarditis and pericarditis, the inflammation of the heart and its exterior lining, associated with the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, she said. In Arkansas, there have been reports of myocarditis, usually among adolescents or young adults, and Dillaha said she was aware of one brief hospitalization during which a patient was monitored, did very well and was sent home.

But the virus can cause a far more severe version of that condition, she said.

“Covid-19 itself can cause really severe myocarditis that puts kids in the hospital and into the ICU and it can result in permanent damage,” Dillaha said. “It’s important to weigh those risks and benefits. The vaccines lower the risk of severe myocarditis by 1,000 times.”

She added that people of any age with even mild covid-19 infections can have lasting complications from the virus, including cognitive dysfunction, heart problems, lung damage and kidney damage.