As state and federal officials are working to speed up the distribution of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines to health care workers and residents of long-term care institutions, experts are concerned that a dangerous myth linking the COVID-19 vaccines to infertility deliver safely, can further hinder. and fast. Facebook, meanwhile, has branded posts with the myth, calling it ‘false information’. In a statement to Yahoo Life, a Pfizer spokesman denied the allegations. But to help you clear up confusion, here’s an outline of what you need to know.
Where does the idea that COVID-19 vaccines cause infertility come from?
The myth has its origins in a letter written by two scientists, which was later shared to Facebook in reports claiming that the ‘head of research at Pfizer’ said the vaccine ’causes female sterilization’ because it contains protein that is important for the development of placenta. Subsequent repetitions of the myth claim that the vaccine may not contains that placental protein (known as syncytin-1), but that the genetic sequence it contains is very similar to the placental protein that it will confuse the body to attack them both.
What is wrong with this theory?
The alleged source of the information is incorrect for the first time. The concept was not driven by Pfizer’s head of research, but by two non-Pfizer-affiliated individuals: one is a scientist named Michael Yeadon who left Pfizer ten years ago and made several baseless allegations about the pandemic, including one in November when he declared. that the pandemic was “effectively over” and that vaccines were unnecessary. His co-author is a German doctor named Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg, who also spread misinformation during the pandemic, including a video in late April calling COVID-19 ‘harmless’.
Except for the wrong award, experts say the claims themselves are false. “Rumor has it that they use placental protein instead of protein, it’s just wrong,” said Richard Kennedy, an immunologist and co-director of the Mayo Clinic’s Vaccine Research Group. Kennedy says the idea that the genetic sequence of the vein protein is very similar to the genetic sequence of syncytin-1 is also wrong. “The amount of agreement is small,” Kennedy says.
What does the “vein protein” refer to and why is it important?
Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines use a new approach to immunity, known as messenger RNA (mRNA), which – unlike scary Facebook messages – is safely regarded as previous vaccinations. Instead of relying on live or inactivated virus, the mRNA vaccines use the genetic sequence of the ear protein, which is found on the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, to elicit an immune response.
As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explains, the instructions to build the peak protein allow the body to “recognize that the protein does not belong there and begin to build an immune response and make antibodies.” It is a process that is not only faster and cheaper than vaccines that contain a virus, but also more precise. As with any vaccine, there is a chance that rare complications may occur, but in the seven years that the technology has been tested on humans, no long-term side effects have been reported.
How do we know that it does not look like the placenta protein?
Kennedy says that the ear protein contains about 1,300 amino acids that fold together to form the protein; from this only four overlap with syncytin-1. “I tried an online tool that compares protein sequence. It can’t even set up the two proteins to compare it, that’s how different it was,” he says. Beyond the vein protein wash somehow similar enough to syncytin-1 to stimulate the immune system to attack them both, then all women who contracted COVID-19 would be infertile.
“The ear protein is not just limited to the vaccine,” Kennedy says. ‘[If this myth were true], this would mean that every person infected with COVID-19 would have an immune response to the same protein, and therefore they would all be infertile as well. ‘For more than a year in the pandemic, researchers have found no evidence that COVID-19 causes infertility in women. In fact, a study was published in JAMA in November, comparing pregnancy outcomes in women who developed severe COVID-19 and those who tested negative for the virus, concluded: ‘SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy is not related to adverse pregnancy outcomes.’
What did Pfizer and Moderna say about the claims?
In a statement to Yahoo Life, a Pfizer spokesman said there was “no data” to support this hypothesis. “COVID-19 vaccines have been incorrectly suggested to cause infertility due to a very short amino acid sequence in the peak protein of SARS-CoV-2 that is partially shared with the placenta protein, syncytin-1,” the spokesman wrote. . ‘The sequence, however, is so short, not even four amino acids in a row, but rather four shared amino acids in a series of 5 that it is very unlikely that it could lead to the body producing an immune response that would lead to the body which attacks itself or the placenta. Moderna did not respond to a request for comment from Yahoo Life.
So is it safe for those who want to get pregnant to take a COVID-19 vaccine?
Kennedy says there is no reason to believe that vaccines are unsafe for women who want to get pregnant. ‘There were 23 women in the Pfizer trial and 13 in the Moderna trial who were pregnant,’ he says, noting that these trials are not usually pregnant women, but that they were missed during the selection or later became pregnant. . “None of them had any problems. There was a spontaneous abortion in the Pfizer trial, but it was in someone who got a placebo, and two abortions in Moderna, both in the placebo. ‘
In addition, other experts have noted that the fact that COVID-19 is contracted during pregnancy carries risks. “Pregnant people are at increased risk for COVID-19 and death from serious diseases,” the CDC said on its website. For all these reasons, Kennedy says that individuals need to think twice before believing what they read on social media. “I suggest being very careful with the information you choose to believe and … and not to believe,” Kennedy says. ‘You have to look at the information and the sources very carefully. A random Facebook message from a stranger is probably less reliable than talking to an expert, your doctor or healthcare provider.
For the latest coronavirus news and updates, follow along https://news.yahoo.com/coronavirus. According to experts, people over the age of 60 and those with an immune system are at greatest risk. If you have any questions, please refer to the CDCs and WIE’s resource guides.
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