Dr Zac turner talks through the top five biggest Covid lies of 2021

Dr Zac Turner has debunked some of the biggest Covid-19 myths floating across the web in 2021.

Welcome to Ask Doctor Zac, a weekly column from news.com.au. This week Dr Zac Turner gets into the biggest Covid lies of 2021.

Question: Hi Dr Zac, I am a suburban GP and over the past year I’ve been fielding the types of questions you write about – patients are always coming in with unusual questions about medicine, their bodies, their poos and pee, and everything in between. The pandemic has made people more curious about their health than ever before.

The pandemic has also made some people stupid about their health. The craziness I encounter in my clinic no longer surprises me. I’d have to put much of the blame on social media misinformation.

I’m curious to know what you think the top five Covid misinformations of the year are? – Dr Ron, NSW

Answer: Thanks for your question, Ron – we could share some colourful stories! I agree, there has been an uptick of curious patients coming to me with what I like to call ‘Dr Google Questions’. And I am thankful that rather than simply searching up their curiosities and diagnosing themselves, they are researching then going to their doctor and asking for professional advice.

It’s been a busy and trying time to be a doctor. Picture: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images.

Just like you, I will never discount this type of questioning, and it’s our responsibility to ensure patients don’t lead themselves down a dangerous path of misinformation.

There certainly have been some ‘misinformation doozies’ come out this year thanks to social media. I’m not sure what has happened to our society, but it seems to me poorly edited memes have become cornucopias of truth for certain groups of people (a certain cohort of semi-celebrity sports people and their spouses).

I believe we can no longer let people use their platform to dispel lies. I also believe people of sound research and mind need to not be apathetic and voice our evidenced opinions. We cancel celebrities for doing the wrong thing every month, let’s cancel misinformation spreaders while we’re at it.

Top five ‘misinformations of 2021’

5. The Pfizer Boob Job

Who could forget when some women were shouting for joy at the news on social media the Pfizer vaccine would enlarge their breasts multiple cup sizes.

Unfortunately, this social media misinformation resulted in some women holding out for a Pfizer vaccine rather than getting AstraZeneca. All because they wanted a free boob job, courtesy of the Federal Government.

Woman taking measurements

This turned out to be a big beat up. The Pfizer vaccine wasn’t causing a permanent, albeit beneficial (for some and OTT for others) side effect; rather it was the body’s immune response overreacting. When some people got the jab in their upper arm, the lymph nodes in their armpits activated and swelled.

So for several weeks some women were walking around with swollen breasts, but they soon subsided and went back to their normal size.

4. ‘The Covid vaccine is experimental’

I’m sure we’ve all come across this claim on our social media feeds this year. I’m getting quite tired of this because it’s just plain wrong. Yes, they have been made quickly … that’s what happens when the entire scientific world with the greatest minds of humanity combine into unity – can you imagine if we could be so united on other issues.

I’ve even experienced this myself recently when I was completing my PhD. To analyse the data needed for my research – what used to take a computer four years working 24 hours a day, now only takes two weeks!

That’s the progress in technology and medicine and the Covid vaccines have been continuously tried and tested in the same way.

They have been given the tick of approval from the Therapeutic Goods Administration. Every batch of vaccines that enter our country are checked to make sure they meet the same quality standards.

Vaccines have been given the tick of approval from the Therapeutic Goods Administration.

3. Joe Rogan has better health advice than any chief health officer in Australia

Joe Rogan’s ‘kitchen sink’ of unapproved medication took the internet by storm this year. I said it back then, and I’ll say it again: unless a person has real evidence, from reputable sources, and can be reproduced whenever required, then it’s not science. It’s misinformation. You don’t need a degree to question the validity of what you’re told and who is benefiting.

An undergraduate degree mostly means you’ve stuck it out for a few years and submitted some stuff that other people thought was at the least relevant. A medical degree is all that plus a few additional years (minimum) racing around and sorting out real life problems – all the while learning what information is needed to make an informed decision based on the available data.

Joe Rogan is a podcaster not a doctor. Picture: Supplied

You probably remember the headlines that read something along the lines of ‘Horse medication could be the key to Covid treatment?’ Ivermectin remains an unapproved medication for the treatment of Covid-19 – and while I prescribe it for parasites and for skin lice (revolting – only Google this for a scare) I doubt it ever will be approved.

It is an antiparasitic drug, not an antiviral drug. This misinformation led to many people buying Ivermectin over the internet and self-medicating, with some ending up severely unwell in the hospital.

2. Viral Shedding

I always let out a huge sigh whenever I hear these two words. This is becoming a conspiracy theory rivalling the fake-moon landing. For those who aren’t aware or haven’t spent time in Byron Bay, the ‘idea’ is that Covid vaccinated people can shed the virus and infect those around them.

Vaccine shedding is real, but not in the case of Covid-19 vaccines. In fact, shedding is just another term for spreading and is how one would spread or shed a virus to another person. It is only possible in vaccines when they contain a weakened version of the virus and as far as I’m aware (and I have previously helped make antimalarial vaccines), Covid-19 vaccines have no live elements in them.

They contain fragments of spike proteins, which even if you could shed these it wouldn’t be enough to cause an infection. For that you need the entire virus, which the vaccine doesn’t contain.

1. The world is over, Omicron is here!

This is a new one, but I believe it sums up all the misinformation madness that has reaped havoc in our society the last two years.

Without fully understanding the variant, we had decided as a country that it was going to ruin us and send us back to square one. We ignored any real health advice to not jump to conclusions and then leapfrogged our way to chaos.

We still don’t know the full story of Omicron, and until we do let’s sit tight and do what we have always been doing; wear masks when we have to and practice social distancing if required.

Conclusion

I’ll finish off by using this great little analogy – we all have opinions, just like we all have butt holes. But unless we feed ourselves with the correct information, you will be speaking total crap!

Whenever you hear misinformation, don’t go out all guns blazing, rather take a moment to research and then question the stories these people are spewing, because it is only through dialogue and understanding that we can win these people over and eventually overcome this pandemic of misinformation.

Dr Zac Turner has a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery from the University of Sydney. He is both a medical practitioner and a co-owner of telehealth service, Concierge Doctors. He was also a registered nurse and is also a qualified and experienced biomedical scientist along with being a PhD Candidate in Biomedical Engineering.