A look at what didn’t happen last week

A look at false and misleading claims circulating as the United States approved a COVID-19 vaccine and distribution begins. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts:

NO EVIDENCE COVID-19 VACCINE RESULTS IN STERILIZATION

CLAIM: The head of research at Pfizer says the COVID-19 vaccine causes female sterilization because it contains a spike protein known as syncytin-1.

THE FACTS: The Pfizer and BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine does not contain the protein syncytin-1, which is important for the creation of placenta. The head of research at Pfizer made no such claim.

Social media users are sharing a screenshot from an article titled “Head of Pfizer Research: Covid Vaccine is Female Sterilization” to claim the vaccine results in sterilization of women. Information in the article, carried by the blog “Health and Money News,” is attributed to Michael Yeadon, a retired British doctor who left Pfizer nine years ago.

The article says “the vaccine contains a spike protein called syncytin-1, vital for the formation of human placenta in women.” It goes on to say “the vaccine works so that we form an immune response AGAINST the spike protein, we are also training the female body to attack syncytin-1, which could lead to infertility in women of an unspecified duration.”

Posts carrying the false information shared a petition filed by Yeadon and Wolfgang Wodarg, a German physician, to the European Medicines Agency that demanded clinical trials of the Pfizer vaccine be stopped in the European Union until more safety and efficacy data can be provided. In the petition, the two acknowledge that there is no indication “whether antibodies against spike proteins of SARS viruses would also act like anti-Syncytin-1 antibodies.”

Yeadon said he is not saying there is a problem between the vaccine and fertility, but asked if the vaccine makers were sure there was not a problem.

Pfizer spokeswoman Jerica Pitts told the AP the vaccine candidate has not been found to cause infertility.

“It has been incorrectly suggested that COVID-19 vaccines will cause infertility because of a shared amino acid sequence in the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 and a placental protein,” she said in an email. “The sequence, however, is too short to plausibly give rise to autoimmunity.”

Experts also say there is no evidence the Pfizer vaccine would result in sterilization of women. Rebecca Dutch, chair of University of Kentucky’s department of molecular and cellular biochemistry, said in an email that while syncytin-1 and the spike protein broadly share some features, they are quite different in the details that antibodies recognize.

NO EVIDENCE IVERMECTIN IS A MIRACLE DRUG FOR COVID-19

CLAIM: The antiparasitic drug ivermectin “has a miraculous effectiveness that obliterates” the transmission of COVID-19 and will prevent people from getting sick.

THE FACTS: During a Senate hearing Tuesday, a group of doctors touted alternative COVID-19 treatments, including ivermectin and the anti-malaria medication hydroxychloroquine. Medical experts have cautioned against using either drugs to treat COVID-19. Studies have shown hydroxychloroquine has no benefit against the coronavirus and can have serious side effects. There is no evidence ivermectin is a safe or effective treatment against COVID-19.

Yet Dr. Pierre Kory, a pulmonary and critical care specialist at Aurora St Luke’s Medical Center in Milwaukee, described ivermectin as a “wonder drug” with powerful antiviral and anti-inflammatory agents at the hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Clips of Kory’s comments on ivermectin during the hearing were shared widely on social media with one clip receiving more than 1 million views on YouTube.

Ivermectin is approved in the U.S. in tablet form to treat parasitic worms as well as a topical solution to treat external parasites. The drug is also available for animals. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health said the drug is not approved for prevention or treatment of COVID-19.

The FDA said side effects include skin rash, nausea and vomiting.

Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins University, said most of the research around ivermectin at the moment is made up of anecdotes and studies not the gold standard in terms of how to use ivermectin. “We need to get much more data before we can say this is a definitive treatment,” he said. “We would like to see more data before I recommend it to my patients.”

In June, Australian researchers published the findings of a study that found ivermectin inhibited the replication of SARS-CoV-2 in a laboratory setting, which is not the same as testing the drug on humans or animals. Following the study, the FDA released a letter out of concern warning consumers not to self-medicate with ivermectin products intended for animals.

POSTS FALSELY CLAIM COVID-19 VIRUS HAS NOT YET BEEN ISOLATED

CLAIM: Scientists have not isolated the COVID-19 virus, so a vaccine is not possible.

THE FACTS: The virus was first isolated by Chinese authorities on Jan. 7, according to the World Health Organization. A virus is isolated when a specimen is collected from an infected patient to be grown and studied. Virus isolation is critical for diagnosis of diseases and in the development of vaccines.

Following news that test results showed COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna to be more than 90% effective, Facebook and Instagram users began sharing a post suggesting the COVID-19 virus was never isolated, making it impossible to create a vaccine.

The posts say, “if no one has isolated the virus then what’s in the vaccine??” over a photo that appears to show a doctor holding a vial of the COVID-19 vaccine.

According to WHO officials, its office in China was first informed about the virus in December 2019. The virus was isolated on Jan. 7 by Chinese authorities. China later shared the genetic sequence of the virus on Jan. 11. The genetic sequence allowed for diagnostic and vaccine development, said Glenn Randall, a professor in the department of microbiology at the University of Chicago.