Claims Pfizer Covid Vaccine Causes Infertility are False

Claim: An article claims that the head of research at Pfizer (maker of one coronavirus vaccine) said that the vaccine causes female sterilization and he and a colleague demanded a halt to testing. 

Rating: ***False News/Misleading***

This article originated on the website/blog Health and Money News, which is a fake news site trafficking in anti-vaccine conspiracy theories. Information shared from this site should be considered unreliable and should be verified from more reputable sources before sharing or posting. 

The doctor the article claims is a head of research at Pfizer in fact has not worked for Pfizer since 2011 and had a role of chief scientist for allergy and respiratory diseases, not head of research. He is not involved in the company’s current development of the Covid-19 vaccine. 

He and another doctor did send a letter to the European agency in charge of vaccine trials asking for the trial of the Pfizer vaccine to be halted, citing the potential for the vaccine to block a protein that could inhibit placenta growth in mammals, potentially leading to infertility in female recipients of the vaccine. Their letter, however, did not claim that the vaccine causes infertility or sterilization. 

Furthermore, both doctors have previously been known to disseminate incorrect information about Covid-19, including prematurely declaring the pandemic over and stating that the virus is no more dangerous than seasonal flu, both of which are false. 

Pfizer has publicly released documentation about the efficacy and safety of its vaccine, including that the only side effects observed during the vaccine trials were fatigue and headache in a small number of patients. (See image). 

Given the dubious source of this claim, the misleading credentials given for the doctors, the doctors’ own damaged credibility, and a lack of scientific evidence that the Pfizer vaccine causes sterility, I am rating this claim False News/Misleading.

Sources:

https://www.wthr.com/mobile/article/news/verify/will-the-covid-19-vaccine-cause-infertility-in-women/531-3cb5340a-b3d0-4224-8a52-cfb24e9984a9 

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/covid-vaccine-female-sterilization/

https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizer-and-biontech-conclude-phase-3-study-covid-19-vaccine