A false claim that the coronavirus vaccine was linked to the deaths of 46 caregivers in Spain has been shared on social media.
An article titled “Second Pfizer COVID shot stopped in Spain after 46 deaths in one nursing home after first shot” can be seen on websites that regularly promote misinformation about the coronavirus and vaccination (here).
The article makes an unfounded connection between a spate of coronavirus deaths in the Nuestra Señora del Rosario nursing home in Los Barrios, Spain, and the Pfizer vaccine.
“All residents and workers at the plant received the first dose of Pfizer mRNA in early January,” the article reads. “Most residents became very ill shortly after the shots.”
A spokesman for the Junta de Andalucia, the regional government, told Reuters in an email that the proposal that the residents would die as a result of the vaccination was false.
“A coronavirus outbreak occurred even before the first dose of the vaccine was administered to residents and workers,” the spokesman said. “Those who died in the home did so because of the COVID-19 disease.”
Even after a person has been vaccinated for COVID-19, there are circumstances where it is possible to contract the disease.
Not only does it take a few weeks for immunity to build up, but full protection is only given after the second dose of the vaccine.
After two weeks, a single dose of the Pfizer vaccine is 57% effective in protecting against symptomatic COVID-19 infections, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine (here) and peer-reviewed.
The research showed that two doses of the vaccine cut symptomatic cases by 94% in all age groups, and serious diseases by almost as many.
The article on Spanish deaths in care homes also claims that health officials ‘stopped all further mRNA shots’ in response to the deaths.
While it was reported that the second dose of vaccine was interrupted due to the outbreak (here), the Junta de Andalucia said that both doses (here) are still being administered.
VERDICT
Untrue. There is no real link between the vaccine and the deaths of residents of the care home. The local government said the coronavirus outbreak started before the first dose of the vaccine was given.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.