I got the COVID vaccine recently, so I'm gonna try it out.

Okay, we need to talk about this.

[The truth about needles]

So, to be honest, I had just licked the coin⏤I love to lick coins, it makes me feel alive⏤and stuck it to my arm, like so.

But I don't just want to shrug this completely off as trickery.

I've had many friends messaging me about how they hadn't licked the coin, and it's still stuck to their arm where they've recently got the COVID-19 vaccine.

And there's tons of videos going around on the internet right now of this supposed phenomenon.

So I do want to look into this seriously and try and figure out what exactly is happening here.

And in order to understand what's going on, we first have to talk about our fear of needles.

One in four people in the UK have Aichmophobia, the fear of needles, and one in three people in America have Trypanophobia, the fear of injections, and up to 70% of people have general anxiety around these skinny metal tubes.

It is normal to fear needles⏤the strange reason you fear them actually has to do with your brain working properly, your evolutionary history, and the neurophysiological circuitry of thine brain.

The main reason you are likely, at least, a bit scared of needles is due to evolution.

If a prehistoric human had a metal object pierce their skin, it likely meant injury, infection, or death.

Even just a thousand years ago, to see blood leave your body, for example, when you get a needle in your vein and then you get blood work⏤I cannot look at that.

But obviously if I were to look at that, I would freak out because blood leaving your body usually means death.

So we've evolved to see needles as a threat.

The fear responses that we get around needles are natural⏤they're meant to protect ourselves.

But, ironically, now, needles save our lives.

Today, small, tiny pieces of metal going into our skin is what gives us a vaccine or is used to take blood work for medical examinations that help prolong our lives.

But needle injections have only been happening for a little over a hundred years.

So our brains haven't evolved to catch up with the fact that needles help us.

Your brain fearing needles means it's acting naturally.

We aren't neurophysiologically programmed yet to understand how these needles actually save our lives.

If a disease like COVID-19 hit humanity before we had needles, there'd be no vaccines, no blood work; we'd potentially lose control of the virus.

And here in Canada, we wouldn't be on our way to dystopia, mass vaccination clinics! Yes, this is real life.

Surveys show we tend to totally forget neutral needle experiences, rarely share positive needle experiences, and love to share bad needle experiences.

Another study found we exaggerate our bad needle experiences in many cases to make the story more fun.

But in some cases we take on other people's bad needle stories and mix them into our own narratives⏤we're constantly overestimating the threat of needles.

But your brain overestimating threats is also natural .

If you're in the wild walking along and there's a rustling over there in the shrub and you go, "Oh, my God, is that a bear?", and it's just the wind, you're like, "Okay, I look stupid, but I'm still alive!"

If you're walking through the woods and there's a rustling over there in the shrub and you think, "Oh, it's just the wind."

But it's actually a bear comes for you.

Get your jugular, you're dead.

That's not actually what would happen with the bear in the wild, but 'tis a metaphor.

But again, ironically for needles, this is not the case.

If you overestimate the threat of a needle, for example, with the vaccine and you don't get it, then you are more susceptible to the disease, like the increase in death from measles we see in kids of populations who don't get vaccinated.

Also, the media doesn't help. It tends to portray many plotlines and movies with dirty needles, disease being spread through needles and this does not help with our overall fear.

But a meta analysis found that there's an 8.7% decrease in needle fear for every decade of life lived.

This is likely due to increased exposure to needles.

Another meta analysis found that the highest fear of needles is in Saudi Arabia with Sweden being the least scared of the needles.

But it is so important for us to talk about this fear and conquer this fear because then we get to get vaccinated and experience the vaccination high as seen here.

Didn't hurt at all! (I KNOW!)

I feel amazing.

Did you really cry?

Yeah, I cried, I cried. Like I kept crying and people kept coming up to me and like I'm like I'm so happy.

They obviously just wanted to talk to me because they were like, yeah this is our job.

We like to feel good because so many people weren't happy.

I'm like why people are freaking out? This is like history, this is so freaking cool!

So it's understandable that people are afraid of needles and vaccines. Add on top of that are constant sharing of these scary needle stories, and now we have the sharing of this magnetic arm phenomenon.

And you can see how it's a self perpetuating problem.

Not to mention the intentional misinformation or jokes or the spreading of conspiracy theories.

If you want to learn more about how conspiracy theories work from a neurological perspective, we have a video on that will link in the description below.

But in short, people often fear things that they don't understand. And like the bear example earlier, it might be better to make up some fake explanation as to why this is happening, than to be oblivious about what's actually going on.

So our needles and the COVID vaccines causing our arms to become magnetized.

So first of all, there are no magnetic metals in the COVID-19 vaccines.

Some of the vaccines contain trace amounts of aluminum or as the British say aluminium, but it's similar amounts to what's found in water or food you are already eating, but also again, aluminum is not magnetic.

The vaccines also contain small amounts of liquids in general, between 1ml to as low as 0.3ml in volume.

Even if you are being injected with just a ferromagnetic substance, that volume is so small that it wouldn't make your arm magnetic.

But things like coins and magnets can stick to your skin for a variety of reasons.

Oils and moisture in the skin, as well as sweat, can increase the stickiness of your arm. Surface tension and the size and the weight of the object can play a role.

Some people debunking this will have it stick with one certain coin, but when they get to a dime or a penny or a loonie, if you're in Canada, they fall right off.

You can also see this play out when people just put coins on their foreheads or put spoons on their nose.

My guess, for people who aren't outright faking this online, is that the reason it's sticking has to do with the perfect amount of moisture, oils and sweat mixed with the perfectly sized and weighted objects placed at a great angle on the arm.

And of course it's the internet.

So many people are just making these videos to fake it for "atención", also known as attention.

Now 10% of people experienced the most severe version of needle fear which involves fainting.

This is a big public health issue that is being studied deeply right now because of the need for vaccination against COVID-19 across the world.

And these 10% of people tend to avoid vaccinations and even medical health in general because of their fear of fainting from needles.

Evolutionary biologists think fainting evolved as a non-verbal signal from intergroup aggression to show that "I'm not a threat. Look, I just fainted!"

To say again, fainting evolved as a way of showing a threatener: "Look, I'm not a threat. You coming at me? Look at I then pass out right here. "

When you faint from needles, the needle is the threatener, and due to the fear response that you have from the needle, the body spikes in blood pressure then decreases rapidly in blood pressure, causing a lack of oxygen to the brain, and boom, she's got a fainting spell.

Studies have found it's the lack of consciousness that people fear the most. It's not necessarily the needle itself, it's what the needle is capable of doing to them.

So I am definitely afraid of needles.

I always have to scroll on Instagram when I'm getting blood work done, and just you know, look at some thirst traps. Because I need to get my brain away from what is going on because my body is just acting naturally.

But of course these vaccinations are so important.

I have a pep in my step from getting my first COVID-19 vaccine.

So share this video with anyone who is having apprehension, or who is afraid of needles, because you know what it is normal.

Thank you so much for watching and we will see you in a few weeks for a new science video.

How am I doing this. Peace!