Alexandra Ferguson
(CNN) – One of the concerns of parents about vaccinating their children against COVID-19 is whether the vaccine could in any way harm their children’s future fertility. A survey released by the Kaiser Family Foundation last week revealed that 66% of parents of children ages 5 to 11 were concerned that vaccines would have a negative impact on children’s fertility later in life.
Only a third of parents say they would vaccinate their children aged 5 to 11 against COVID-19 right now, according to a KFF survey
Doctors and public health officials come together to assure parents that this is not a concern.
“Unsubstantiated claims linking covid-19 vaccines to infertility have been disproved by science,” says the American Academy of Pediatrics, which represents physicians specializing in treating children, in a statement posted on its website. Web.
“There is no evidence that the vaccine can cause a loss of fertility. Although fertility was not specifically studied in clinical trials of the vaccine, no loss of fertility has been reported among trial participants or among the millions of people who have received the vaccines since authorization, and no signs of infection have appeared. infertility in animal studies, “he adds.
“Similarly, there is no evidence that the COVID-19 vaccine affects puberty.”
The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, which represents doctors who treat pregnant women, give birth, treat infertility and help women prepare for pregnancy, also encourages women to get vaccinated against COVID-19 .
“Major medical organizations have repeatedly stated that COVID-19 vaccines have no impact on fertility,” he says.
The same is true for male fertility, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
There is no link between COVID-19 vaccines and infertility. Here why
Distribution of vaccines for children ages 5 to 11 is expected to begin this week. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday issued an emergency use authorization for Pfizer’s covid-19 vaccine for this age group, and vaccine advisers of the CDC will meet to discuss whether to recommend its use in these young children this Tuesday.
FDA vaccine advisers are notoriously independent and are not afraid to express unpopular opinions at their meetings. Last week, several members of the FDA’s Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Related Biologics raised concerns about whether it is worth vaccinating this entire age group at this time.
Not a single one raised a question about the effects on fertility. This is because there is no scientific reason to think that a vaccine could affect a child’s development until puberty or future fertility, doctors have repeatedly said.
And the committee subsequently voted 17-0, with one abstention, to recommend authorization for emergency use of the vaccine in the age group 5 to 11 years.
FDA Authorizes Pfizer Covid-19 Vaccine for Children 5-11 Years Old
Dr. Paul Offit, one of the FDA’s advisers on vaccines, pediatrician and director of the Center for Vaccine Education at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, explains in a video the origin of one of the myths.
“This false notion was born out of this letter that was written to the European Medicines Agency, which is like the European equivalent of the Food and Drug Administration, in which it was stated that there was a similarity between the spike protein of SARS- CoV-2, which is against which an antibody response occurs when these vaccines are received, and a protein found on the surface of placental cells called syncytin-1 ”, he says.
“So the idea was that if an antibody response to the coronavirus spike protein occurs, an antibody response to this syncytin-1 protein is also inadvertently produced on the surface of placental cells, which it would affect fertility ”, he adds.
“In the first place, that was not true. Those two proteins are very different. It’s like saying that you and I have the same social security number because they both contain the number five. So that was wrong to begin with, ”Offit explains in the video.
“If it was affecting fertility, if the natural infection was affecting fertility, then the birth rates should have gone down, but that’s not what has happened. In fact, birth rates have increased slightly. So there are two pieces of evidence that argue against this vaccine or the natural infection affecting fertility in any way ”.
Dr. Peter Marks, who heads the FDA’s vaccine division, addressed the fear at a news conference on Friday.
“These vaccines have been evaluated in various studies before reaching the clinic and now they have been given to many, many millions of people. There is no evidence that these vaccines have an adverse effect on fertility, and there is no reason to suspect that an mRNA vaccine may, ”Marks said.
Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are called mRNA vaccines. They use genetic material called messenger RNA or mRNA to instruct the body’s own cells to make a small piece of the coronavirus spike protein, which in turn trains the body to recognize and attack it. Some scientists have described mRNA as a Snapchat message: it gives cells instructions and then disappears.
“The way these vaccines work when they enter the cell, the cell makes the protein for a short period of time, that is, on the surface of the cell. The body produces an immune response. And the original vaccine, the mRNA component, degrades. It is not incorporated into the genetic material of the person. There is no way that will happen, ”Marks said.
The side effects of the covid-19 vaccine in children aged 5 to 11 are ‘mild’, according to researcher
“So these vaccines are the ones that we are pretty sure will be reasonable for use in children. I would not hesitate to administer them, if I had even younger children in this age group, (I) would not hesitate for a second to administer one of these vaccines to my son ”.
People who are concerned that vaccines may cause infertility in their children are not alone. During the polio vaccination campaigns in Nigeria in the 1990s and early 2000s, many communities resisted over rumors that the vaccine was actually a covert attempt to sterilize people to reduce the population.
There were also fears about the human papillomavirus or HPV vaccine and the risks of infertility in the United States, fears fueled by rumors that the vaccine somehow caused a disease called primary ovarian failure. Several large-scale studies have shown that this is not true.
The-CNN-Wire
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