Days after US President Joe Biden said he would order states to allow all adults to be eligible for COVID-19 vaccines by May 1, a social media report claimed that the vaccines caused infertility and that nursing mothers who vaccinated, can harm their babies. . In addition, the post claims that more than 6,000 people over the age of 50 died in February 2021 from the Moderna vaccine. These allegations are false.
The main post available here makes three main claims: 1) that the vaccine ‘makes men and women sterile’, 2) that ‘if you are a nursing mother, your baby can get serious side effects (sic) and 3) that “6402 people over the age of 50 died of the Modern wax in February alone.”
Other posts on social media that make similar claims about vaccine-related infertility can be found here and here.
At the time of publication of this article, more than 115 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Janssen vaccines, the three COVID-19 vaccines authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), are in the United States administered. States according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (here, here).
The Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna vaccines use new messenger RNA (ribonucleic acid) technology to create an immune response, and both require two shots. The one-shot J&J vaccine involves a more conventional approach, using a cold virus to introduce coronavirus proteins into cells to elicit an immune response (here).
It has been found that none of these vaccines cause infertility, nor that recipients should stop breastfeeding. As for the post’s claim about vaccine-related deaths, the CDC found no evidence that vaccines contributed to deaths in patients among those who died after being vaccinated.
NO EVIDENCE THAT THE COVID-19 VACCINES CAUSE INFERENCE / PREGNANCY AND BIRTH COMPLICATIONS
As stated here by the Pritzker School of Medicine of the University of Chicago, there is “no evidence that the COVID-19 vaccine can reduce your natural fertility or harm the placenta or fetus.”
Referring to the Pfizer / BioNTech and Modern vaccines, a group of obstetricians and gynecologists at the medical school explained that although the vaccines are new, their mRNA (Messenger RNA) technology “and existing safety data provide reassurance about the safety of COVID -19 mRNA vaccines during pregnancy. ”
In addition, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists here says that those trying to conceive can still get a COVID-19 vaccine, as “there is no evidence that the COVID-19 vaccines cause infertility.”
The college also advises that you “do not need to get pregnant after receiving a vaccine” and that “if you find out you are pregnant after taking the first dose (of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine or the Moderna vaccine), still need to receive the second dose. ”
Some social media posts (here) claim that an unspecified COVID-19 vaccine ‘contains a protein called syncitin-1, which is essential for the formation of placenta in women’ and that receiving the vaccine ‘ can lead to infertility in women for an unspecified duration. ”
The Reuters Fact Check team has previously refuted on social media that mRNA vaccines target syncytin-1, a protein that is essential for successful pregnancies here. The website of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Medical website also made this claim last month with the help of dr. Cecilia Stuopis, obstetrician-gynecologist at MIT, dismissed.
Published by WedMD and the Washington Post, articles explaining why COVID-19 vaccines have been falsely linked to infertility are available here and here.
EXPERTS SAY THAT BREASTFEEDING CAN GET THE COVID-19 VACCINE SAFE
The report in question claims that vaccine recipients who nurse will cause dangerous side effects on their children are also unfounded. According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which recommends that those who are breastfeeding get the COVID-19 vaccine: “It is not necessary to stop breastfeeding if you want to get a vaccine” (here).
“If you are vaccinated, the antibodies made by your body can be fed through breast milk and help protect your child from the virus,” reads the college’s website.
Furthermore, dr. Molly Stout, director of maternal fetal medicine at Michigan Medicine Von Voigtlander Women’s Hospital, earlier explained to Michigan Health (here) that ‘vaccination is recommended for nursing mothers because the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the theoretical safety risks of vaccination. ”
Stout also said that “antibodies from the lactating mother that are transferred into breast milk can actually protect the breastfed baby.”
In a statement published in December 2020 (here), the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine did not recommend that recipients of COVID-19 vaccines stop breastfeeding, explaining that post-vaccination lactation poses a “small potential risk to the child” “and that” there is a biologically acceptable benefit. “
6,402 PEOPLE DID NOT DIE FROM THE MODERN VACCINE IN FEBRUARY 2021
The post in question falsely claims that ‘6402 people over the age of 50 died of the Moderna (SIC) vaxx in February alone.’
According to information gathered by the U.S. Vaccine Event (VAERS) vaccine system, available at wonder.cdc.gov/vaers.html, 227 individuals who received the Moderna vaccine died in February, 220 of whom were older than 50. . number is not close to the post of 6 402, the origin of which is not clear.
But as explained here in a previous Reuters fact check, anyone can report events to VAERS (vaers.hhs.gov/reportevent.html) and an disclaimer on the CDC website states: ‘The reports may contain information that is incomplete, inaccurate is, coincidentally, or unverifiable ”(here).
When downloading the data, users get a further disclaimer that the information does not contain information from investigations into reported cases. The indemnity also states “the inclusion of events in VAERS data does not imply causation” (here).
As stated here by the CDC, “Reports of death to FATHERS after vaccination do not necessarily mean that the vaccine caused the death.”
“To date, VAERS has not detected any patterns of cause of death that would indicate a safety issue with COVID-19 vaccines,” the CDC said.
Of the 109 million vaccine doses administered in the United States between December 14, 2020 and March 15, 2021, “VAERS received 1,913 deaths (0.0018%) among people who received a COVID-19 vaccine.” The CDC reviewed “available clinical information, including death certificates, autopsies and medical records,” with no evidence that vaccination contributed to the deaths of patients.
VERDICT
Untrue. None of the currently available COVID-19 vaccines have been found to cause or increase the risk of infertility or pregnancy and birth complications. According to experts, those who are breastfeeding can safely get a COVID-19 vaccine. 6,402 individuals older than 50 did not die in February 2021 from the Moderna vaccine.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.