Claims from supposed Pfizer scientist about Covid vaccines are false

Claim: Dr. Micheal Yeadon, supposedly the former Vice President and Chief Scientist of Pfizer, made comments that the Covid-19 vaccine is unnecessary. 

Fact Check Rating: FALSE. The doctor’s claims are unsupported by science and his credentials are given incorrectly. 

I covered Dr. Micheal Yeadon in a previous post which debunked claims he made about dangers of the Covid-19 vaccine made by Pfizer (see that Fact Check here: https://bit.ly/3kN8BoB). Yeadon is commonly cited as a high-level Pfizer scientist, but this is highly misleading because Yeadon left the company in 2011 and worked in a department for allergy science, not infectious diseases. None of the work done at Pfizer to develop a vaccine for Covid-19 was done with his involvement. 

Furthermore, Yeadon’s claims about the lack of need for vaccinations for Covid are completely false and not supported by any mainstream medical providers or organizations anywhere in the world. Covid-19 is so dangerous precisely because humans lack immunity to the virus, in total contrast to Yeadon. Far from being unnecessary, it is essential that a critical mass of people around the world be vaccinated in order for herd immunity to be achieved. 

Dr. Yeadon’s further implication that the vaccines available for Covid-19 are unsafe because they haven’t been sufficiently tested on humans are also unfounded. In the United States, all Covid vaccines have gone through an extremely rigorous four-phase process of testing before being approved for use. Internationally, the process is similar and equally thorough. No serious side effects or risks were found, and continued monitoring of patients is core to vaccine distribution.

Sources:

https://healthfeedback.org/claimreview/a-rise-in-the-number-of-covid-19-cases-and-deaths-starting-in-september-2020-contradicts-the-claim-by-michael-yeadon-that-the-pandemic-is-fundamentally-over-in-the-u-k/

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

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/dec/02/blog-posting/former-pfizer-employee-wrong-coronavirus-pandemic-/

https://www.jhsph.edu/covid-19/articles/achieving-herd-immunity-with-covid19.html

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/coronavirus/is-the-covid19-vaccine-safe 

#FactCheck #Pfizer #Covid19 #Vaccine

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