Will the Vaccine turn you into a Titan?
by Eli Gallant and Turner Schnee
May 27, 2021
Do Covid vaccines turn people into titans and alligators, or is it just government propaganda? Since Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro suggested they could turn people into crocodiles, make women grow beards, and cause men to speak in effeminate voices, we decided to look into it and ask people about these interesting theories. As you probably know, this virus originated in Wuhan, China, at the end of 2019 and slowly started to break the news. China took measures to control the spread by putting strict limits on entry and departure from the general area. However, this could not contain the panic caused by the virus, and it ended up spreading worldwide.
As of the writing of this piece, there are a total of 160 million worldwide cases with 3.33 million of those cases resulting in a fatality according to the CDC. Since the start of the pandemic, scientists have been working to create a vaccine for the virus, and distribution started in the middle of December 2020. For the time being, the CDC has authorized and recommended three vaccines: Pfizer, Medurna, and Johnson & Johnson. However, these vaccines have been reported to have various side effects varying from nothing to being bedridden for multiple days. So far, we have found no scientific evidence that these vaccines will turn people into crocodiles. Our sympathies to President Bolsonaro.
The Pfizer-BioNTech has been authorized for those 12 and older and has an effectiveness of around 95%. The dose is administered with two shots that are 21 days apart. After the two shots, like all the others, there will be a two week period after the dosage until you can call yourself fully vaccinated. Until recently, the cutoff for the vaccine was at 16. However, the immunization became available to those as young as 12 on May 10. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine also has possible side effects that can include tiredness, headaches, muscle pain, chills, fevers, and nausea. In most cases this can take up to two days to take effect. Some will have more severe side effects than others.
The Moderna vaccine is cleared for those above the age of 18 and is a two-dose shot administered 28 days apart. It will become effective 14 days after the second dose is received. And according to the CDC website it is 94.1% effective against Covid-19. The Moderna vaccine has possible side effects that can include tiredness, headaches, muscle pain, chills, fevers, and nausea. In most cases this can take up to two days to take effect. Some will have more severe side effects than others.
The Johnson and Johnson vaccine is a one-shot dosage. This vaccine is the least popular among the big three due to its lower effectiveness. Also, it was briefly pulled due to five women experiencing severe blood clotting after taking it. As of today the ban on the shot has been lifted. According to the CDC, the J&J vaccine is 66.3% effective based on the clinical trials that they performed. The J&J vaccine also has possible side effects that can include tiredness, headaches, muscle pain, chills, fevers, and nausea. In most cases this can take up to two days to take effect. Some will have more severe side effects than others.
While looking into the side effects of the vaccine, we decided to ask around and find out personal experiences with the inoculation. Out of those we interviewed, all of them had received the Pfizer-BioNTech shot, as did the authors of this piece. The first person we interviewed was Sadie Gallant, who is a senior at Yarmouth High School and is 17 years old. When going into the interview the words of Bolsonaro rang in our heads. We prepared ourselves to be confronted with Sadie wielding a massive beard. To our disappointment it appeared that she had not.
Instead, she claimed to have minimal side effects, stating, “My arm was sore both times, and the second time I had a really bad headache in the morning.”.
We next interviewed Camden Olson who is a senior at YHS and is 17 years old. Camden told us, “With the first dose I experienced a lot of sore arm that lasted for about 4 days, and with the second dose I got a fever about 12 hours after and a swollen lymph node that remained for about 6 days.” Unfortunately Camden had not turned into a crocodile at the time that we had interviewed him, nor was he a titan. Unless you take into consideration his running skills, as he is an absolute titan in that category.
Both of this piece’s authors have received both doses. Eli is 17 years old and Turner is 18 years old, and we both experienced very minimal side effects. To quote Eli, “after receiving my second dosage I didn’t feel like much was off. I had a sore arm which I had expected and that ended up lasting roughly a day and a half. The night of the day I received my vaccine, I also experienced low level symptoms of a classic cold, which just left me feeling a bit icky.”
Turner stated, “I was honestly surprised that I didn’t experience a lot of the possible side effects listed for the vaccine. I came out with just a sore arm that lasted two days. However, after receiving the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine, I used Tylenol and regularly drank lots of fluids for the next day which may have had an effect on how I felt.”
We now wanted to get the experiences of people who did not get the Pfizer, so we hunted down some who had received the Moderna vaccine. We turned to Max Kempler. Max is 19 years old and has received both his first and second dose. He said, “I had nothing from the first one. There was no arm soreness. But with the second one my arm was sore and I felt fatigued the day after the shot, but that was all.” This overall seemed to line up with those who had the Pfizer shots. But going back to what Balsonaro said, we wondered if Max’s voice had become more effeminate, but to our surprise, it had not.
With most of the global population starting to get vaccinated, it appears that we are starting to put Covid behind us. With mask mandates for those who are fully vaccinated starting to be lifted in the United States, things are looking promising after 14 months of turmoil. According to an article from Bloomberg, more than 1.68 billion vaccines have been administered across the world.
As we finished our research and interviews we had found that no the covid vaccine does not in fact turn you into a crocodile, make women grow beards, make men's voices effeminate, and it sadly does not turn people into titans, but it might just help end a global pandemic.