Misinformation Alerts

Manipulated data from the preliminary findings of a CDC study investigating  COVID-19 vaccines and pregnancy outcomes are being used to claim that the vaccines are harmful to pregnant women. The study enrolled 3,958 women around three months after vaccination. Of the 827 pregnancies evaluated, the researchers found a miscarriage rate of 12.6 percent (104 pregnancies) which is comparable to the average miscarriage rate of 10 to 20 percent. Importantly, this data only includes data from completed pregnancies, which means more data is available for people who were vaccinated later in their pregnancy than for people vaccinated earlier in their pregnancy. Following the publication of the results in the New England Journal of Medicine, social media users noted that 700 of the pregnancies included in the analysis were vaccinated after 20 weeks when the risk of miscarriage is lower. They then re-calculated the rate to include only pregnancies with vaccination during the first trimester, concluding that the real miscarriage rate is 82 percent. This is a gross misrepresentation of the study’s data, as it fails to include complete data from the people who were vaccinated prior to 20 weeks, most of whom are still pregnant. In fact, the study explicitly states that “whereas some pregnancies with vaccination in the first and early second trimester have been completed, the majority are ongoing.”  By only including data from those who were vaccinated early in their pregnancy, the results were primarily from pregnancies that ended early, due to premature birth or miscarriage. The results presented in the study are preliminary and data is still being collected. At this time, the results suggest that there is no increased risk of miscarriage following COVID-19 vaccination.

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A social media post claims that the Delta variant of COVID-19 is far less deadly than the mainstream media reports. The user backs up the claim with data from a June 25 report from Public Health England that indicates the Delta variant’s case fatality rate is 0.1 percent compared to 1.9 percent for the original strain. A spokesperson for the agency cautions that there is not sufficient evidence to determine if the Delta variant is less dangerous than the original strain. Experts added that a reduced case fatality for the Delta variant is expected given the higher vaccination rate compared to the start of the pandemic or when earlier variants were identified. A study from April found that the Delta variant in the UK is 43 percent to 90 percent more transmissible than the original, but found "no clear evidence for a change in disease severity."

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 A now-retracted study published in the scientific journal Vaccines is being hailed as proof that COVID-19 vaccines are dangerous. The study was retracted for misrepresenting data from the Netherlands' vaccine adverse reaction reporting system, Lareb, to conclude that the COVID-19 vaccines cause two deaths for every three deaths they prevent. As with the VAERS system in the U.S., anyone can report any adverse reaction following vaccination to Lareb, whether or not it was actually caused by the vaccine. The data collected by these reporting systems are meant to monitor and investigate potential adverse reactions, not to represent verified vaccine side effects.

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False claims that the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine was developed before the pandemic have been circulating online for the past two weeks. These claims are based on an agreement between Moderna, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) that outlines the terms for transferring research materials related to coronavirus RNA vaccine between the institutions. Because the agreement was signed prior to WHO notification of COVID-19 in China, it is being used as proof of a “plandemic,” the conspiracy theory that the COVID-19 pandemic was planned. According to a spokesperson from the NIAID, the agreement pertained to vaccine candidates against another coronavirus, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV), and not SARS-CoV-2. NIAID and Moderna have been collaborating on coronavirus vaccine research since 2017, well before the identification of SARS-CoV-2.

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While the Delta variant is rapidly becoming the dominant COVID-19 variant worldwide, narratives downplaying the risk of the variant and the benefits of vaccination are circulating online. This misinformation has been at least partially fueled by the WHO's recommendation that fully vaccinated individuals continue to wear masks in public places because of the potential risk from the Delta variant, with some suggesting this proves that the vaccines are ineffective. A notable figure in the U.S. alternative medicine movement published an “analysis” falsely claiming that more fully vaccinated people have died of the variant than partially or non-vaccinated people. Exactly the opposite is true; nearly 99 percent of recent COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. have been among unvaccinated people. Still, social media users are claiming that the Delta variant is being used as an opportunity to push for another vaccine or booster shots. 

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