Dispelling Needle Myths: Overcoming the Fear for a Healthier Future

Unless you are not conversant with the internet, or not familiar with the media, you must have seen videos of people saying they will not receive vaccines, as well as videos of them given you 101 reasons why you shouldn't get a vaccine. In fact, the Covid-19 vaccine received lots of controversies and so many people did videos showing when spots where they received the vaccine were magnetic, attracting everything from spoons, to coins, and so on. Some even showed videos where electric bulbs were coming on when wires were placed on the spot of the vaccination.

People being Aichmophobic is understanding and natural, as a lot of people fear needles. About 1/4 of the UK population are scared of needles, and about 1/3 of the US populations are trypanophobic (fear of injection). It is normal to be scared of needles, since your brains are working properly and parts of the brain's function is to keep you alive by protecting you and the brain perceives piercing as a possible cause of injury, infection or death, so it is just doing its job to protect you.

^{Image Credit}

In our modern world, needles are used for lifesaving activities including taking blood for examination, administering vaccine, and to give treatments. Although our brains are yet to understand that needles are doing the lords work of saving us. I asked people questions about needles and I realized that people usually forget normal needle experiences, rarely share good needle experience but are quick to share the bad experiences they had with it. A survey showed that people with bad needle experience tend to exaggerate their experiences and would take other people's experiences to heart while mixing them with our experiences, creating a narrative.

A lot of people because of the fear of needles do not get vaccinated, and this causes them to be susceptible to the disease and this can affect other people especially infants that are yet to be vaccinated and elderly with weak immune system. Talking about kids, there is always an increased rate in the population of children that are infected with measles in regions where they don't get vaccinated.

^{Image Credit}

It is no doubt that a lot of people are scared of needles and vaccines but then, a lot of us aren't helping out as well. So many of us are so quick to share videos of these scary injection stories and one thing that a lot of the people who share these videos do not put into context is that the videos might be misleading, meant for jokes, or to spread conspiracy theories.

People usually fear things they do not understand and people in the aim of gaining one thing or the other would not shed light to whatever the fear is. Back to the covid-19 vaccine, it content doesn't contain any magnetic metals, although some of the vaccines contain trace amount of aluminium and that should be a problem because it is similar to the amount found in water, or in food and it is not magnetic. If this will make you relaxed, then you should know that the liquid that makes up the vaccine is so little (as little as 1ml to - 0.3ml) in volume that it would have any magnetic effect when introduced into the body (that is if it even contained any ferromagnetic compound).

^{Image Credit}

Taking about needles, some people can go to the extent of fainting when they come in contact with needles, and this people make up about 10% of the world's population. They tend to avoid medical help or vaccination at any level because of the fear of fainting from needles. These people aren't scared of the needle but what the needle can do to them but with people like this, therapy can help because it shouldn't be a reason not to get vaccinated for any disease at all.

Understanding the psychology behind needle fear is crucial for dispelling myths and promoting a more informed perspective. By fostering accurate information and mitigating anxiety, we can collectively work towards a healthier future, one where vaccinations and medical procedures are embraced rather than feared.

Post Reference

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4900413/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30109720/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4900415/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19283260/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7774419/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8220023/
https://www.cdc.gov/childrensmentalhealth
https://www.advocatehealth.com/health-services