False Reports That COVID-19 Vaccination May Make Sterile Deters Some Americans From Getting Their Injection, Forcing Healthcare Professionals To Show Their Patients That What They Read Online Has No Scientific Basis .
They are spread in particular on social networks like Facebook, where we can read that 97% of vaccinated become infertile, that even sex with an immune man is enough to harm a woman’s fertility, and that all of this could “Sterilize an entire generation”.
As the pace of injections slows in the United States, these flawed claims complicate the task of the Biden administration, which has set itself the goal of achieving collective immunity.
Nearly two-thirds of people who say they are sure they will not get vaccinated worry about the consequences on their fertility, according to a US study published in early May.
And about half of those who have not yet received a dose say they fear that “the COVID-19 vaccine may have a negative effect on their fertility in the future,” Kaiser’s Ashley Kirzinger told AFP. Family Foundation, an NGO aimed at educating the public on health issues.
Among 18- to 49-year-olds, 50% of women and 47% of men express such concerns.
“No proof”
The exclusion of pregnant women from early clinical trials helped create these fears, and the new round of misinformation from anti-vaccine groups coincides with the US campaign’s slowdown.
“They’re doing a lot of recycling things that were already a source of concern for existing vaccines and applying them to these new vaccines, even if there is no scientific basis for that,” says Devon Greyson, professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
These messages are targeted at women, because “fertility is such a strong reaction, which is so intimate,” adds Devon Greyson. “So if you’re looking for a scarecrow to scare people off, saying ‘this will make you sterile’ works great.”
“Concerns about fertility and vaccines touch the hearts of what, for many women, represents femininity,” agrees Katharine O’Connell White, professor of gynecology at Boston University School of Medicine.
“There is no evidence to suggest that the vaccine can cause infertility,” three medical institutions, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and the Society for Maternal recalled in a joint statement. -Fetal Medicine.
Even though more than 585,000 Americans have died from COVID-19, many are still reluctant to receive an injection, leaving medical professionals to convince them that the fear of not being able to have more children is unfounded.
Trust issue
“I always tell my patients to print things they see that they find scary or scary. And then we talk about it, ”explains Katharine O’Connell White.
But the most skeptical do not trust their doctor enough to turn to him.
People who are strongly opposed to vaccination do not seek advice from their doctor, or do not go to see it at all, according to Abinash Virk, an infectious disease specialist.
The fact that women’s health concerns have sometimes been ignored by healthcare professionals plays a role in this problem.
“Historically, the needs of women have often been overlooked in scientific research. Often, this is because the person conducting the study is not a woman, ”says Mme White.
As the health choices in families often fall on women, refuting this false information is essential, especially since vaccination with Pfizer-BioNTech has just been opened to American children from the age of 12.
Achieving collective immunity requires that a large part of the country’s population, including children, be vaccinated, because the more people who are immunized, the less the virus can spread.
And misinformation about vaccines is a barrier.
“It is difficult to get rid of false information,” adds Mme White. “They take a lot easier than the simple, boring truth.”
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