'The virus will eventually disappear, we should open the country and wait'
Petousis-Harris believes that this point of view is a "pretty insensitive way of looking at something."
"Many people who succumb to the virus are the ones you love. If you think you can let it go for a while, and then we will all be immune, then you have to think again."
An example of a country that "lets it go" is Sweden., which never formally introduced lockdowns and instead encouraged its citizens to stay home if they were sick. Its response to COVID-19 has been labeled a "fatal error," with the country recording more than 1 million cases and 14,641 deaths as of this writing.
"You just have to look outside to see what happens when you let it rip," says Petousis-Harris.
"You have an enormous amount of collateral damage, from the loss of life, not to mention the massive economic impacts. You will bring the country to its knees."
'My immune system is better than the vaccine'
There have been many people around the world who have succumbed to COVID-19, despite being young and having no pre-existing conditions.
"Actually, the vaccine is giving your immune system a warning about the virus and giving it the best opportunity to respond," explains Petousis-Harris.
"One of the things that causes the damage is actually that your immune system responds so vigorously. So you can't count on your immune system to do it right, there's always the possibility that it will over-respond and kill you."
'The mRNA technology inside the vaccine will alter my DNA'
Petousis-Harris says this theory is actually "biologically impossible," and whoever came up with it was "not paying attention in school."
"Your DNA, which is the code for your life, is held within a special compartment within the cell called the nucleus. Messenger RNA [used in the vaccine] it cannot go from the outside of the core to the inside of the core. There is no way to get in there, "he says.
"Even if it did, this mRNA has no instructions or the ability to integrate in any way with DNA. This misinformation is taking advantage of people's lack of knowledge of genetics."
'Once the vaccine is injected, it affects your organs, including your reproductive system.'
When the vaccine is injected into your arm, it "ceases to exist." Petousis-Harris explains the scientific journey that the vaccine takes through your body.
"People have the image that the vaccine flies through their body and creates problems, but it just isn't true," he says.
"They inject it into your arm, and at that injection site it is absorbed by some specialized immune cells and you start to have pain in your arm. Then those cells translate that message into a spike protein," he says.
"Then the mRNA disintegrates and the spike protein that was just created disintegrates into small pieces. It then shows up on the outside of that immune cell, which carries it to local lymph nodes throughout the body."
"It is then presented for a specific immune response. There is nothing left of either the mRNA or the spike protein, within hours or days."
The rise in misinformation around vaccines
Petousis-Harris says the response to the COVID-19 vaccine has been "unprecedented."
"It is something that we have never seen before. It is important that people understand that science was there and prepared before the pandemic, in terms of being able to develop a vaccine," he explains.
"The science wasn't really new. What's new is removing the hurdles, which are usually so huge. Getting things like a new vaccine through a clinical trial process and licensed for use, those hurdles are huge. That's it. the difference, they were remote. "
As to whether Bill Gates is monitoring people vaccinated with a microchip injected along with the vaccine - Petousis-Harris has a simple answer.
"You cannot insert a microchip into the needles that are used to administer vaccines."
