Shared video of Dr. Fauci interview with added commentary misinterprets vaccine information

A video widely shared on Facebook, with over 468,000 views, was posted by TAHO on January 9th, a group that claims to “to encourage the youth in farming activities.” The video shows National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci being interviewed by Chris Cuomo on CNN. Complete with record scratch sound effects and a skeptical narator doing a voiceover, the video questions the efficacy of the authorized vaccines for COVID-19. The narrator misinterprets Dr. Fauci saying ““We know for sure it’s very, very good, 94%, 95% in protecting you against clinically recognizable disease.”  “Clinically recognizable disease, but not COVID,” the voiceover interjects. Dr. Fauci is only making a distinction between disease and infection.  The authorized vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna do, in fact, protect you from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus SARS-COV-2. The vaccines do not stop the infection but the disease. The primary goal of the vaccines is to keep people healthy, which they have been shown to do in clinical trials. The vaccine protects you from getting sick with COVID-19, but researchers still don’t know if individuals can still get infected and transmit the virus to others. This is why you should wear a mask and continue social distancing, even after you get vaccinated.

 The American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology answers why you should continue to wear a mask and practice social distancing after immunization…

While experts learn more about the protection that COVID-19 vaccines provide under real-life conditions, it is important for everyone to continue using all the tools available to us to help stop this pandemic, like covering your mouth and nose with a mask, washing hands often, and staying at least 6 feet away from others.

There is not enough information currently available to say when CDC will stop recommending that people wear masks and avoid close contact with others to help prevent the spread of the virus. Until we get the pandemic under control, all precautions should be taken to reduce risk of transmission among people.

Both vaccines that received Emergency Use Authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)—the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines—are mRNA vaccines. Tthey work by giving your body a blueprint to create a piece of the virus that causes COVID-19, called a spike protein, the same one found on the surface of the virus that causes COVID-19. 

UNLV vaccination expert Dr. Johan Bester explains why it’s important to get vaccinated…

There are a number of good reasons to get vaccinated; one is to protect yourself. COVID is a pretty frightening disease. Most of us will get very minor symptoms, but if you’re one of those unlucky few who get serious illness, it’s no walk in the park. You might experience lingering symptoms months after. You might end up in the ICU. These are all frightening possibilities. To protect yourself, the best weapon we have right now is the vaccine. The other best weapon that we have is to participate in the preventive activities of masking, social distancing, testing aggressively, and quarantining if you’re sick.