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- And up today, I'm really honored
to have Dr. Mark Shalauta.
He is family medicine, very, very well qualified
on the topic of vaccines.
He actually is co-chair
of our Scripps Medical Foundation Vaccine Committee.
He also serves on a county vaccine advisory group,
and he was a member of the Scripps Advisory Council as well.
So very well-qualified, very well versed
on the topic of vaccines.
So welcome to this and thank you for helping us
keep our staff and patients safe.
Very, very important right now
with the surge of Delta that we are seeing.
So with that, I'm just gonna kick you off right off the bat
and say, people are worried about the mRNA vaccine
versus the standard technology of Johnson and Johnson.
Can you just tell us a little bit
about the vaccines in general?
- So in general, people are worried
because this is supposedly new technology.
Although the technology has actually been around for years.
And it's the first time that it's being used in vaccines,
but it has been tested and been around for a long time.
- Okay.
And then for people that are worried about mRNA vaccine,
they have an alternative, right?
The Johnson and Johnson
technology. - So absolutely.
So we have the three current available in the US,
currently approved, are the Johnson and Johnson,
which is a little bit more traditional vaccine.
And then you have the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.
- People are thinking that there's animal products
or fetal cells in the vaccine.
Can you tell us the truth about that?
- There's no animal products in the vaccines at all.
And then as far as the fetal products,
the way that came about is some of the older vaccines,
so this is not the Moderna, not Pfizer,
but the J and J vaccine,
it uses cell lines that are 40 to 50 years old
in the manufacturing process.
But again, that is completely washed out
and not part of the vaccine at all.
So there's no cell lines or fetal products at all
in the vaccine.
And again, interestingly, a lot of the religious leaders,
including the Pope have said, this is completely fine.
It is okay to take these vaccines.
But even if you still are uncomfortable with that,
there's still the mRNA vaccines, so Moderna and Pfizer,
which are completely cell-free.
- Fertility, tell us about fertility.
- [Dr. Mark] There was some concern
that the spike protein is very similar to some cells
that are in placenta, so in the human placenta.
So if you were building antibodies
against the spike protein,
then that would go against the placenta
and then you'd be infertile, you'd keep on miscarrying.
So that turned out, first of all, not to be true
because they are no more similar than me and you,
our social security numbers being the same
because they have the number five in it.
So they're really not the same, number one.
And number two, if you were to get COVID itself,
COVID disease, then you're gonna be building antibodies
and then in theory, you'd be infertile.
So first of all, it's not true.
And so you don't even have to worry about it.
- If I've already had COVID, I'm hearing
that I don't need to get a vaccine.
Can you tell us the truth about that?
- So you do have some immunity
just by getting wild type disease.
So there is some truth to that,
but it seems like by getting the vaccine,
you're actually getting a little more of a boost.
And first of all stronger immunity
and lot more long lasting.
So it's still recommended to get the vaccine,
even if you had COVID.
- Plus it's with the variants, right?
So even if you got that, the COVID, whenever you had it,
it doesn't mean that you have the antibodies
against the new strain.
So there's some protection - Right.
- That the vaccine gives you
against all these other variants?
- That seems to be the case.
If you had COVID, you're less protected
against some of the newer strains
versus again, with the vaccine,
you get a very robust response,
even with the newer strains that we're seeing.
- How about this gonna be messing with my DNA
and there's a microchip in there,
and this is all just a plot?
- It's amazing how things start
and then get a life of their own.
I mean, I just watched the video on TikTok
that someone's checking, they got their vaccine,
they do this chip reader and they see
that's like, "Oh, there's a chip in there."
It turned out to be a joke and the person later said,
"This was a complete joke, it was not real."
But it already has a life of its own
so it's circulating out there.
So as far as it integrating into your DNA.
- Yes. - So that's easy to see
how that can be confused cause it's RNA.
So that's genes.
But it does not actually go into your DNA.
So it goes into the cells,
and all RNA is, is instructions to make a protein.
As soon as that's read, it's degraded immediately.
It doesn't go into the nucleus of your cell
where your DNA is
and never gets integrated into your genome.
- The other one I've heard as we're doing the myths
is one shot is enough.
So yes, J and J is a single shot, but for mRNA vaccines,
why can't I just get one shot and be done with it?
- So it doesn't seem like you get
the type of immunity you really want.
It's almost like a little bit from the first one,
but then you get this great surge of immunity
and both antibodies and T-cell immunity.
So you really want, again,
to get that really robust response.
If you were ever exposed to COVID,
you really need those two shots.
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