Smith, who’s been vegan for “about four years” and a vegetarian “for about five,” says that while her diet is completely plant-based, that doesn’t mean that it’s healthy. “I love pasta and pizza and burritos and every carb available,” she says with a laugh. “But for me, being vegan has a mental effect on me more than anything else. I feel that I’m my most authentic, genuine self with a vegan lifestyle. I love animals so much.”

While Smith probably wishes she could have brought the on-set catering team home with her each night, instead she relied on a personal creation that she’d made in one big batch and then eat three or four times a week. “Chickpea pasta with Beyond Meat is the most basic recipe ever, super comforting, and doesn’t require a lot of talent,” she says of the meatless alternative with red sauce and pasta made with chickpeas. “I’d come home from set and make this, no matter what time it was. It just makes me happy.”

It was purely by accident that the recipe came together, and that’s fine by Smith. “I love all these things, so I figured they should all be combined into the perfect meal.” So, as part of Glamour‘s ongoing series, That Thing I Always Cook, she’s sharing it with us. Bon appétit!  

Harley Quinn Smith’s Chickpea Pasta with Beyond Meat

Ingredients

Banza chickpea pasta

Truff pasta sauce

Beyond Meat

Follow Your Heart parmesan cheese

Instructions

I get the big packs of Beyond Meat and cut it into super small pieces then throw it in a pan. Then I cook it up—it essentially crumbles with a spatula.

Add Truff pasta sauce. I use an entire jar because it’s so good. I’ll usually add chili flakes or hot sauce, because I love everything to burn my mouth.

The Banza chickpea pasta comes in all sorts of shapes. I love the spaghetti and penne pasta.

When I’m done, I top it with Follow Your Heart parmesan cheese. 

My drink of choice is always Topo Chico. I don’t know if it’s your typical pairing with pasta, but I think it’s great.

Cruel Summer is currently airing on Freeform and Hulu. You can follow Harley Quinn Smith on Instagram here. 

Re-entering dating apps after months away is strangely reassuring—the world has changed, but the gang’s all still here. My hair catches the wind rippling from the 12 flag emojis in Doug’s profile. I pay my solemn respects to the many fish that have been clubbed to death to communicate a certain sense of outdoorsiness. Games of “Two Truths And A Lie” stretch before me like a lazy trail of vapor behind a jumbo jet. Maybe soon, I will consent to play Catan with a “doggo” in the home of a man who identifies as “the little spoon.” Who knows? The world is my oyster (which you had BETTER like eating, on our spontaneous adventures!)

A dating app, under the best of circumstances, is an interactive gallery of people trying to be appealing. It is a digitized version of a bar, but with zero music or alcohol—actually, it’s probably closer to a single’s mixer in a church basement with an “Improv Magic!” theme. So it makes sense that after a social hiatus long enough to literally travel to and from Mars, behavior on dating apps is approaching new heights of badness.

Here is an example of an exchange I had on a dating app recently. I wrote: “Ethan! How are your plants?” And he wrote back, “Well watered.” Chekhov dreamed of writing dialogue so succinct! Ethan and I will go the rest of our lives without speaking. One day I will be standing in line at the snow cone machine in the afterlife, and who will turn around? Ethan. And what will we talk about? His plants. 

On Hinge, I answered a prompt. “I’m convinced that…” with “…I am personally funding the public library by paying so many late fees.” This is to convey that, ha ha, I am adorably literate but, like, also fun and chill. Recently, a man commented, “While this may be the case, it’s important to give others a chance to check out those books too.” Oh Frederick! I think you were having a bad day. 

I wish that I could say, Ah yes, men are so bad at dating. Worse than ever! Totally unlike me! I long to report that I continue to set the industry standard in the online dating space, creating meaningful emoji innovations while maintaining best “let’s exchange numbers” practices. But no. I too have forgotten how to flirt online. 

Sunday quickly became the most popular night of the week, thanks to a little suggestion from Margulies and Lieberthal’s 13-year-old son, Kieran. “We eat a lot of salmon in this house because it’s healthy and there’s so many ways you can cook it, but one day my kid said to me, ‘I wish the skin was crispier.’ I thought, ‘OK, he wants crispy and he loves garlic, so I started playing around.’ I’m sure there’s a better recipe out there, but this crispy garlic salmon is my own recipe, and now it’s our Sunday night meal. It’s his favorite thing.”

In a typical week, Margulies eats cooked and raw salmon about five times, as well as a diet full of antioxidant-rich foods like blueberries, nonfat Greek yogurt, and Green tea. But the real joy comes from how these foods make her feel, and the joy she gets from preparing them. “Cooking is very therapeutic, and if you follow recipes, you’ll get it right and learn every time you cook.”

Speaking of which, Margulies is sharing her crispy garlic salmon recipe with Glamour as part of our ongoing series, That Thing I Always Cook. Bon appétit!  

Julianna Margulies’s Crispy Garlic Salmon with French Green Beans and Mama Rice

Ingredients

Raw salmon

Salt and pepper

Minced garlic

Olive oil

1 onion

Slivered almonds

Rice

Chicken broth

French green beans

Maldon salt flakes

Instructions

Take the salmon out of the fridge at least a half-hour before you cook it. You want all fish, meat, and poultry to be at room temperature before you put heat to it, that way you get the full flavor.

Rinse and pat dry the salmon, and sprinkle it with salt and pepper. Then rub freshly minced garlic all over the flesh side of the fish. 

Put the remaining minced garlic in a heated pan with olive oil. Get the garlic cooked to just browning and then, skin side down, place the salmon on top of the garlic at very high heat. This sears the garlic to the skin and makes the skin crispy. Then turn the heat down a bit after about 2 minutes, since you don’t want it to burn.

When the salmon cooks halfway through, flip it over and cook for another 4 to 5 minutes. Then turn off the heat and let it sit in the pan for 1 to 2 minutes. You never want to overcook salmon, or it will get rubbery. You want it to be medium/rare. It will still cook even though the heat is off because the pan is still hot.

“If I’m being honest, I can’t understand a word you’re saying. I just want your tight pussy,” my date blurted out halfway through the evening.

At 18, I was astonished by the words that came out of his mouth. Not just because it was both misogynistic and ableist, but also because, apparently, my disabled body was the subject of hypersexualization. As an Asian woman, I had grown up in a culture that prizes physical perfection, but I was born with cerebral palsy, which affects my speech and mobility. My body was far from perfection, but I often find myself at these crossroads, caught in a web of stereotypes. An ex once told me that he didn’t care for me as a person, but his “yellow fever” made him stay with me. Back then, I was just happy someone found me attractive.

As a daughter of Korean immigrants, the unspoken rule was that dating before college was out of the question. Although I had secret boyfriends, it went only so far under the roof of my super-strict parents. In hindsight, my family probably thought no one would date me; disability was very much a foreign concept for them. In South Korea—and most Asian countries—disability is yet to be socially accepted. People with disabilities are shunned from society and often institutionalized.

In Asian communities it’s a common belief that a disability is a curse: A person is born with or acquires a disability as a form of chastisement or bad karma. When a child is born with a disability, it’s assumed that the parents are being punished for their sins. At least, that was the message I grew up hearing at the Korean American church I attended where the congregation never passed up an opportunity to remind me that I was different. They delivered their judgments under the guise of good intentions; they’d pray that I would be “healed” of my disability, while the kids would shamelessly ridicule the way I talked and walked.

For some time I thought maybe this was just an evangelist problem. But I felt isolated everywhere in the Asian community. Countless Asian-run nail salons refused to serve me because they “didn’t know how to accommodate” me. Asian taxi drivers in New York City drove off when they realized I was disabled. A Korean family physician once refused to treat me for a common cold because she never treated “a kid with my condition” (though the common cold doesn’t affect my body any differently because of my cerebral palsy). I grew up believing that I didn’t belong.

As a woman, a member of the Asian American Pacific Islanders (AAPI) community, and a person with a disability, I’ve always felt like a walking target—my very existence making me a minority within a minority to either be ignored or fetishized.

So it came as no surprise to me that as hate crimes against the AAPI community grasped national attention, those of us with disabilities—an estimated 1 in 10, according to the CDC—are often left out of the conversation, and that the safety of Asian women with disabilities (who are three times more likely than their nondisabled counterparts to be victims of sexual violence) is still not included. I’m left on the borderlines of both the disability and AAPI communities, not definitively belonging to either one. It’s nothing new to me: From the men who thought they had achieved their sexual fantasy to be with a crip yellow chick to the countless times that people of my own ethnicity treated me like dirt, I’ve gotten comfortable with not feeling comfortable.

Venus Williams—tennis champion, equal pay advocate, fashion and beauty mogul, and recently acclaimed interior designer—has a lot going on. That’s just the way she likes it. “You know, it’s better than nothing going on,” she says with a laugh. “I have such a crazy schedule but that’s a blessing when you’re doing what you love to do.”

Williams recently added wellness entrepreneur to her list of titles with the launch of self-care brand Asutra, which features a dreamy line of pain relief and sleep support products that dropped at Target stores across the country this spring.

When it comes to sleep, she’s an expert with a nighttime routine she takes seriously. “I think taking some time for yourself at the end of the day is so important. A lot of us are just moving in so many different directions, whether it’s work or family or whatever—hopefully the last part of the day is just a moment for you to breathe,” she says. “I have to have those moments for my own sanity.”

As Williams puts it, “to do what you love well, you gotta sleep.” So we asked her for her favorite products that help her unwind, and how she makes sure she wakes up with the energy of a woman at the top of half a dozen careers.

My favorite sleep aid

I think a lot of people don’t really know the power of magnesium. I actually travel with magnesium drops, I don’t leave home without those. You can also absorb it through your skin and it helps to ease sore muscles but it also supports sleep. So I really love using Asutra’s Melt the Pain Away Body Butter before bed.

The bed requirements I won’t compromise on

The bed is extremely important. I actually have one of those beds that raises up. Serena has one so I had to upgrade my bed for my sister. Bamboo sheets are definitely a must. The mattress protector has to be soft too.

The sleep kit I never leave home without

The Sleep Tight Kit from Asutra has lavender in the eye cover and also a lavender spray that really relaxes. So that’s my favorite—on the road, I always have to bring it. I actually always run out because I’m always giving it away.

What’s currently sitting on my nightstand

Water. Popcorn. My Asutra Mist Your Mood lavender spray, an ankle brace, and my mom got me an Alexa.

The nighttime skincare product I swear by

My rose oil from Asutra. It’s so beautiful, it smells like roses and it’s got little petals in it and it makes your skin glow. I don’t use it just on my face I use it on my whole body. It’s good when you’re wearing something short, which I always am.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case on a Mississippi abortion law challenging Roe v. Wade. The decision to review Jackson Women’s Health Organization v. Dobbs next term was made on Monday, May 17, after being rescheduled for the court’s consideration in conference more than a dozen times.

The controversial law seeks to ban abortions in Mississippi provided after the 15-week mark. In 1973, the court’s ruling in Roe v. Wade gave women the constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy during the first 24 weeks, when the fetus is incapable of surviving outside the womb. In this latest case, SCOTUS will review whether all state laws, like the one passed in Mississippi, that ban previability abortions are unconstitutional.

If the Supreme Court upholds Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban, it will pose a threat to abortion rights nationwide. The ban was signed into law in 2018 by former Republican governor Phil Bryant. The only noted exception was for medical emergencies or cases in which there is a “severe fetal abnormality.” Instances of rape or incest were not considered exemptions. A federal judge in Mississippi struck down the law later that year, and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that ruling in December 2019. Now the Supreme Court, which currently has a 6-3 conservative majority since Amy Coney-Barrett’s appointment, will potentially rule on the case in the middle of the 2022 midterm elections.

What this means for Roe v. Wade right now

The decision on the Mississippi abortion law will affect the future of Roe v. Wade in a time when other states like Louisiana and Alabama are attempting to strip women of their reproductive freedoms. The Center for Reproductive Rights published a report showing that if Roe fell tomorrow, 24 states would likely take action to ban abortion outright. Eleven states already have “trigger bans” in place, which would ban abortion immediately if Roe v. Wade is overturned.

Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, tells Glamour that federal protections are what will matter if the ban is upheld. “One of the most important things is to make sure we have protection at the federal level,” Northup explains. “We’re going to need to have nationwide protections should the Supreme Court weaken those protections at all. We want to make sure that the EACH Act and the Women’s Health Protection Act are there as strong federal safeguards.”

Kristyn Brandi, M.D., an ob-gyn and board chair of Physicians for Reproductive Health, agrees. “I am very concerned by this and other attacks on reproductive health care during a global pandemic,” Brandi said in a statement. “We should be making care more accessible, not limiting options. That is why federal legislation like the Women’s Health Protection Act and the Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance (EACH) Act are so important. The evidence is clear—abortion is health care. We should not be questioning the validity of this fact.”

How the law could affect Mississippi 

Jackson Women’s Health Organization is the only abortion clinic in Mississippi. Restrictions on abortions have a disproportionate impact on communities who are already inequitably impacted by barriers to health care. These communities include BIPOC people capable of pregnancy, people with low incomes, people living in rural communities, and LGBTQIA people.

“It is very disheartening to me that often your reproductive health care depends on your zip code,” Brandi tells Glamour. “I want people in Mississippi to be able to access the same quality health care, including abortion care, as they could anywhere else. All people should have access to care. We should be trying to strengthen the care of all people, not weaken it with partisan legislation.”

Clinic director Shannon Brewer is the plaintiff in the case and says that the clinic doesn’t provide abortions past 16 weeks. When asked the percentage of patients who receive abortions after 15 weeks, she said, “A rough estimate is 10%.”

Northup added that the low percentage of women seeking abortions past the 15-week mark shows that the legislation is about trying to roll back abortion rights. “I think this shows how much this is a political tactic to seek to destroy the fabric of Roe v. Wade,” she said. “It’s a small percentage of women…. This is part of what’s been a strategy for years.”

What happens next

The vast majority of Americans support reproductive freedom. Polling has found that 77% support Roe v. Wade, and there is no state in the country where banning abortion is popular. 

“Everyone across the country who cares about this issue needs to get motivated and active now,” Northup says. “You need to make sure that both the White House and the Congress understand that we are going to have these rights protected and not go backward.”

With the pandemic wreaking unprecedented mental health havoc, we have all shared a traumatic experience. It’s no wonder mental health support groups are gaining traction.

Last month I attended my first support group shortly after my birthday, aptly titled Oh Sh*t, I’m 30, on an app called Sesh. I finally admitted what I had been trying to push out: Saying 30 out loud made me feel and face a range of emotions. In my foray into therapist-led support groups, we shared, meditated, and felt into our body spaces for a quick hour in our private virtual, and then vanishing, Zoom space. It was a nice way to carve out an hour dedicated to processing the things I was feeling.

There are mental health support groups for pretty much whatever you’re facing: life changes (yes, turning 30 counts), fertility challenges, addiction, loneliness, identity. Spaces to address our mental health issues are more accessible than ever thanks to Zoom. They’re not meant to be a replacement for individualized mental health treatment conducted by a professional (and should not be used that way—discussing your emotional well-being with a health-care professional is important, and your mental health should never be dismissed by a provider, family member, partner or friend), but getting plugged into a support group or mental health community can be a powerful way to supplement your mental health care. Think of mental health support groups as self-care for your psyche—not a replacement for going to the doctor, but part of a holistic approach to keeping yourself healthy and happy.

Eryn Bizar, an organizational consultant and sommelier, first connected with her Portland-area support group for those dealing with chronic illness and pain through her therapist as part of her plan to manage fibromyalgia. “The intention was not to have a place to mope about it, but to connect with people who had similar type things, people who just get it,” she says. The weekly commitment “created stability during a time in my life when everything felt out of control and unstable,” Bizar says. “It’s enabled me to develop great compassion, not only in dealing with my own stuff, but in being a resource and ally and a friend to others.”

Mental health support groups have proliferated over the past few decades, as tapping into the power of connection has been proven therapeutic across countless studies. “Connection causes optimism,” said Naz Perez, founder of Heart Broken Anonymous. In her monthly support meetings, over 10,000 global participants have come together to share their stories, listen, and start to heal. “The science shows that we can heal through community.”

Whether you’re in a time of struggle, or just looking to activate your growth mindset for optimal mental wellbeing, here are 16 mental health support groups to check out:

Mental Health Support Groups for General Wellness

Coa

An all-women team launched Coa, an emotional fitness gym with online offerings, during the pandemic. “Just like we can always have better physical fitness, we can always have better emotional fitness,” says Emily Anhalt, a cofounder and clinical psychologist. With a focus on researched methods and community learning, all classes are created and facilitated by licensed therapists. In going through classes with a cohort, “what we’ve seen is that people feel closer to each other, they’re more able to have vulnerable conversations, and they have a shared language for how to bring their emotional selves to other aspects of their lives,” says Anhalt. You can sign up for a series or take a drop-in class, starting at $25.

National Alliance on Mental Illness

More than 20% of us have experienced mental illness—even before the pandemic—but fewer than half of us receive treatment. These often “hidden” conditions strike all people and are on the rise. National Alliance on Mental Illness coordinates a network of trained peer and clinical facilitators around the country to help those with mental illness and their families. Thousands connect locally and virtually in community support groups, free and open to all. (NAMI Conexion offers Spanish-speakers a place to comfortably share too.)

Sesh

Each week on Sesh, 50+ sessions are offered by facilitators from around the world. With up to 14 others, these group sessions help you explore body positivity, handle screen-time burnout, or discuss anxieties about reentering the world after COVID. There’s everything from a weekly queer and trans BIPOC session to groups for dealing with your parents’ dating expectations (en español), all accessible through a WiFi connection. With a free two-week trial, you can try out unlimited one-hour sessions to see what feels right; then $60 per month continues your membership. And, Sesh is starting to accept insurance.

Support Group Central

Support Group Central’s platform opens up support group registration for free or low-fee sessions. From narcolepsy to veterans to chronic illness and caregivers, SGC has more than 30 domains for you to find and explore support groups. 

The Clutch

If you’ve ever listened to an episode of Unf*ck Your Brain, The Clutch is your 24/7 community feminist-wisdom hub. The support network focuses on the intellectual and emotional aspects of existing as a woman in a man’s world, designed to help you unpack social conditioning and self-critical talk. At $97 a month, this support network includes live coaching opportunities, a self-coaching program, on-call trained coaches, and a Facebook group of over 2,700 members and growing.

Shine

The Shine app promotes well-being through mindfulness and gratitude, with daily meditations and prompts. On the community pages, you can share your thoughts and read through others anonymously. The app, founded by BIPOC women Marah Lidey and Naomi Hirabayashi, features guided meditations delivered daily by diverse experts with voices that soothe the soul. A premium subscription to interact with the anonymous community forum is $69.99 a year, and there’s a seven-day trial for you to see if this is your jam.

Mental Health Support Groups for Grief

Heart Broken Anonymous

Heart Broken Anonymous founder Naz Perez researched other peer-support communities like Alcoholics Anonymous and studied the pain of heartbreak to craft a healing space for those dealing with relationship pain. It’s not just about break-ups—stories shared in sessions may be about romantic relationships, the end of a friendship, or losing a loved one or even a pet. “The same part of your brain that lights up for physical pain lights up for emotional pain,” says Perez. “We process emotional distress like an open wound.” HBA has no religious or political affiliation and considers everything shared confidential. Participants can choose to speak for four minutes about what they’re going through in each meeting, which has a recommended $10 donation (the Zoom link is shared with those registered).

Mental Health Support Groups for Fertility, Pregnancy, and Parenting

Post Partum Support International

About 10% of women struggle with infertility, and up to one in five women will experience a mental health or substance use disorder in pregnancy or postpartum. But the process does not have to be isolating. Post Partum Support International runs a range of groups for all kinds of new parents: military, BIPOC, NICU, queer, desi and more, all facilitated by the 300+ trained volunteer support coordinators. There’s also an on-demand support line to call or text: 800-944-4773.

Resolve: The National Infertility Association

Resolve: The National Infertility Association also offers monthly virtual support groups in family planning for general and BIPOC-focused support. The Zoom rooms are capped at 70 people, with breakout rooms of 10 folks to open up the conversation more intimately.

Mental Health Support Groups for Identity-Focused Support

Asian Mental Health Project

The Asian Mental Health Project started offering free weekly check-ins to hold space for pan-Asian communities in March 2020. With politicians using terms like the Kung flu, there was “a surge of Asian American hate,” says founder Carrie Zhang. “It’s a lot to unpack, and it’s really hard to talk about in households where you’re not raised to talk about your feelings.” Following her own experiences in support networks, and peer research identifying common themes across Asian American communities, Zhang formed AMHP after college and runs it with an all-volunteer team. “With the horrible shootings in Atlanta, and Indianapolis, there has been a huge need for support, and also a big influx of support from non-Asian allies,” said Zhang. Anywhere from 10 to 90 folks gather on Zoom where moderators facilitate an open discussion, and guest wellness and mental health practitioners often join to add value. “We make it clear it’s not a clinical support group, but a peer-to-peer wellness check-in,” Zhang said. “We follow the rules of What’s said here stays here, but what’s learned here leaves here.”

Therapy for Black Girls

The Therapy for Black Girls Sister Circle has 400+ members supporting each other via a digital private group. Founded by clinical psychologist Joy Harden Bradford, Ph.D., the online space features 200+ weekly conversational podcasts, and a paid 24/7 online forum with monthly members-only events.

Recovering From Religion

Recovering From Religion offers a welcoming web of resources for those dealing with questions of faith. The network is welcoming to those of all identities and faith traditions, whether you’re no longer religious, working on family religious issues, or just questioning your faith. Hundreds of passionate volunteers answer calls at 1-84-I-Doubt-It (844-368-2848) or offer hope through web-based chats. Sixty local support groups help those work through questions, doubts, or changing beliefs.

LGBTQIA+ Community Resources

PFLAG offers peer-to-peer support for those whoa re queer-identifying or questioning, as well as and loved ones of people in the LGBTQIA+ community. Check out your closest chapter (there are 400+!) for Zoom and in-person confidential meetings. The LGBT National Help Center offers online one-to-one chat peer support Monday through Saturday, and maintains a directory of local resources across the U.S., including community centers and support groups. Licensed-therapist-led sessions happen locally all over: Center on Halsted, the Midwest’s most comprehensive LGBTQ community health center, offers a few support groups  virtually, and in person for $15 per session. This year’s eight-week spring sessions include trans and gender nonconforming, grief and loss, HIV+, and women-focused groups. (Sesh, above, also offers queer-focused support series each week, led by licensed clinicians.)

Mental Health Support Groups for Addiction

Recovery Dharma

Buddhist teachings guide Recovery Dharma’s network of groups, meetings, and communities (sanghas) that use communal discussions and meditations to support those seeking recovery from addiction or addictive behaviors. The peer-led movement has over 7,800 members on Facebook and dozens of virtual meetings per day for identities, phases of recovery, and by geographies.

Mental Health Support Groups for Domestic Violence

The National Domestic Violence Hotline

Ten percent of high school students experienced physical violence from a partner in the last year; 24 people per minute are victims of rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner; and more than 48% of people have experienced psychological aggression by an intimate partner. Women ages 18 to 34 generally experience the highest rates of intimate partner violence, with women of color experiencing domestic violence at disproportionately higher rates.

The National Domestic Violence Hotline has on-call volunteers to connect anyone with the right resources.

Hope Recovery

Domestic violence has surged during the pandemic—Hope Recovery offers confidential support groups and workshops each week for survivors.

For more resources on finding the right support community or group therapy option, check out Mental Health America’s directory of care organizations and guide to support groups.

Let’s jump right in: no, the COVID-19 vaccine does not cause infertility. That is a myth. 

“There is no evidence that the vaccine can lead to loss of fertility,” says Dr. Jessica Shepherd, an OB/GYN at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “While fertility was not specifically studied in the clinical trials of the vaccine, no loss of fertility has been reported among trial participants or among the millions who have received the vaccines since their authorization, and no signs of infertility appeared in animal studies.” 

It’s smart to have questions about medical care, and to read up before you decide what to put into your body, but there’s no reason to think that the COVID-19 vaccine could cause infertility. “Three of the leading professional organizations focused on pregnancy and fertility—the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine—all recommend that pregnant people get vaccinated, as well as those considering pregnancy,” Shepherd says.  

And still, the myth that COVID-19 vaccines cause infertility in women has been making the rounds on social media. Maybe it’s because this year has been so scary, so we’re more susceptible to fear-mongering. Maybe it’s because social media, along with lovely things like dog pictures and makeup reviews, is great at spreading misinformation. For whatever reason, even some people who typically believe in science and listen to doctors are buying in to this one. 

Then why have I heard this claim? 

You might have seen posts going around social media claiming that since the mRNA COVID vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna) teaches the body to fight spike proteins, and since spike proteins are also involved in gestation, the vaccine could cause problems with pregnancy. That’s not true. 

As the CDC explains, something called “spike proteins” exist on the surface of the COVID-19 virus. The mRNA vaccine works because it “gives instructions for our cells to make a harmless piece” of those proteins. When our immune systems recognize the harmless version of the spike protein, they build an immune response that protects us from COVID. Afterwards, the proteins are quickly broken by our cells, which is a natural process cells do with proteins. Though the name mRNA sounds like DNA, the vaccine does not interact with DNA. 

“The two spike proteins are completely different and distinct, and getting the COVID-19 vaccine will not affect the fertility of women who are seeking to become pregnant, including through in vitro fertilization methods,” write Johns Hopkins senior director of infection prevention, Lisa Maragakis, M.D. and Johns Hopkins Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response, Gabor Kelen, M.D. 

There are also claims that people who have received the vaccine can “shed” spike proteins. “This is a conspiracy that has been created to weaken trust in a series of vaccines that have been demonstrated in clinical trials to be safe and effective,” said Dr Christopher Zahn, Vice President for Practice Activities at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, told Reuters. 

These claims sound like science. But they’re made up. 

What’s the data on this? 

No vaccine trial used pregnant volunteers. But, as Shepherd notes, “Preliminary data on Covid-19 vaccines and pregnancy have demonstrated the safety of both the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines in more than 30,000 patients with pregnancies.” 

She’s talking about the peer-reviewed study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in April, which looked at data from 35,691 pregnant participants, ages 16-54, who have now received an mRNA COVID vaccine. The study did not find any “obvious safety signals,” which means there were no patterns of adverse reactions to the vaccine. And Maragakis and Kelen point out that during Pfizer vaccine trials, 23 volunteers became pregnant, and none of the participants who received the vaccine experienced a miscarriage. 

We don’t want to accept the basic facts about STIs (that they are common, often silent, and morally neutral) because we’re busy denying that we are the kind of people who have the kind of sex that has consequences. The reality is that all sex has consequences.

Didn’t STI rates go down during the pandemic?

It would be reasonable to assume that STI cases have gone down during the pandemic. Most people have at least curbed their socializing, even if social distancing hasn’t been embraced across the board.

But a couple of major factors of pandemic living spell public health catastrophe: One is that many people have avoided routine checkups, including the kind of doctor visit where you would get a quick STI screening. Even if you were willing to risk it, testing was less available—a survey by the National Coalition of STD Directors found that during the pandemic, 60% of clinics had reduced capacity to treat STIs. Many clinics shuttered. And, Park points out, in the second half of 2020 there was actually a shortage of STI testing materials, since items like swabs were being redirected toward COVID testing. Even though early 2020 statistics show that STI case numbers have gone down, experts think that just doesn’t reflect the reality.

And STI numbers are only likely to get worse. As social distancing restrictions lift, people will likely have more sex partners. And after more than a year spent avoiding human contact, some may have a sense that surviving a disaster means they’re invincible. “They’re going to feel a sense of freedom,” says Park. “And a sense of ‘I deserve to have condom-less sex because I’ve held out for so long.’” But that just doesn’t make scientific sense—syphilis doesn’t care that you have spike protein antibodies.

Yeah, but I won’t get an STI, because I’m careful

Oh, I know. You only have sex with people you trust! “Most STIs are asymptomatic,” says Park. “Most of the time people don’t even know that they have something when they pass it on to you.” This is something I would like to print on business cards and pass to people when I hear nonsense about STIs. It’s not a matter of knowing or trusting your partner.

Fewer people are using condoms than you may think. “Some students say, ‘Oh, I always use a condom,’ and others almost never,” says Wade. “Often it’s the woman who wants to use them and then men will make it weird, and then women don’t ask because they don’t want men to push back.”

But of course, this doesn’t apply to you! You’re smart. You use condoms! And that’s hugely important. But keep in mind: Condoms protect from some STIs, not all of them. And condoms don’t protect at all from STIs passed during oral sex (unless you use a barrier for oral sex, which most people don’t). “A lot of people think of oral sex as safer sex, but we know that oral sex can also transmit gonorrhea, chlamydia, and syphillis,” says Park.

So what am I supposed to do if I don’t want to be a nun?

“Living in fear of catching an STI is no way to conduct your sex life,” says Park. “Because it’s futile.” Instead, you should follow best practices. Ideally, she says, you should have one partner at a time, use barriers (like condoms), and get tested between partners. “Having concurrent partners is one of the easiest ways to spread both STIs and HIV,” she says.

In the context of modern dating, that’s not always realistic for many people. The next best thing is always using barriers and getting tested regularly. That way, you reduce your risk of contracting an infection, and you make sure that you catch an infection if you do get one. “I have patients who change partners really rapidly and have a lot of concurrent relationships, and they test every two months,” says Park. Getting an STI test is quick and easy—much easier than dealing with long-term health effects if it later turns out you’ve had a silent STI for months or years.

How bad is it if I do get a common STI?

For the more common STIs—syphilis, gonorrhea, or chlamydia—“the prognosis is fantastic if you can catch it early,” says Park. “We have really effective antibiotic treatment, some of which can be given with one dose and then cured. The thing is, for folks who have a silent infection, especially women, it can climb up into the fallopian tubes and into the uterus and can cause scarring or pelvic inflammatory disease. And repeated infections increase the risks of all those complications.”

We’re entering a new phase of the coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed 583,000 lives in the United States and over 3 million worldwide.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) announced on May 13 that it no longer recommends masks for Americans who are fully vaccinated, which means you’ve received both doses of the approved Pfizer or Moderna vaccines or one shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and allotted two weeks for the vaccine to take effect. This comes just a couple of weeks after the CDC first eased up on outdoor mask mandates for fully vaccinated citizens. 

Now, it looks like those who fit the bill can go maskless outdoors and indoors with just a few exceptions. “If you are fully vaccinated against #COVID19, you can resume activities without wearing a mask or staying six feet apart, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, incl. local business and workplace guidance,” the organization’s official account tweeted, along with a link to further guidelines.

That’s not the only update for folks carrying around vaccine cards. “Fully vaccinated people can refrain from testing following a known exposure unless they are residents or employees of a correctional or detention facility or a homeless shelter,” the website also states. 

“Anyone who is fully vaccinated can participate in indoor and outdoor activities, large or small, without wearing a mask or physical distancing,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said during a White House briefing, per ABC News. “If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic. We have all longed for this moment when we can get back to some sense of normalcy.”

According to Politico health reporter David Lim, Walensky advised those who have received their second dose to wait for two weeks before ceasing to mask up in public.  That’s crucial!

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