As countries around the world scramble to secure and perform mass roll-outs of the much-awaited vaccines, researchers have warned of fake news making the rounds that the vaccine could impact fertility.
THERE is no scientific evidence to show that the Covid-19 vaccine is linked to infertility, say researchers.
As countries around the world scramble to secure and perform mass roll-outs of the much-awaited vaccines, researchers have warned of fake news making the rounds that the vaccine could impact fertility.
According to American Forbes magazine, several false social media posts purported a link between the spike protein formed by receiving the mRNA-based vaccines and blockage of a protein necessary for formation of and adherence to the uterus of the human placenta.
The article further noted that the couching of false claims in scientific terms, such as syncytin-1, placenta, antibodies and sterilisation, can quickly cause unnecessary mass hysteria.
Forbes reports that in the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) initial report on vaccine safety and recommendations for both newly released mRNA vaccines, they included pregnant women and those who are breast-feeding, as well as women wishing to conceive, as part of the group they would recommend to receive the vaccine in the initial roll-out to health-care workers.
On Thursday, the president of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Professor Innocent Ujah, said that the Covid-19 vaccine is safe and cannot cause infertility, according to the Voice of Nigeria (VON) website.
The professor told reporters they had heard similar rumours during the polio vaccine eradication programme.
According to VON, the NMA president, who is a professor of obstetrics and gynaecology, said that the claim that the Covid-19 vaccine causes infertility is false, baseless and lacks scientific proof.
