Mass vaccination did not increase the Covid mortality rate, contrary to what physician says

It is misleading video content posted on Telegram’s pocketbook networks, according to which a doctor claims that the vaccines developed by Pfizer against the coronavirus are harmful to the population for lack of efficacy or safety. As verified by Projeto Comprova, it is also misleading that there is not solid monitoring of vaccination in pregnant women and that vaccinated people can, yes, transmit, but the probability is lower.

The vaccine is proven to be effective both in preventing contamination and the transmission of Covid-19, in addition to reducing the chances of those who contract the virus to develop the severe form of the disease.

The article contacted the physician Alessandro Loiola, author of the content verified here, but he did not respond until the publication of this text.

Misleading, for Comprova, is content that uses inaccurate data or that induces a different interpretation from the intention of its author.

How do we check?

Initially, the article sought information on how the efficacy and safety of vaccines are approved by health regulatory bodies, such as Anvisa (Agency for Sanitary Surveillance), in Brazil; the FDA (Food and Drug Administration), in the United States; and the EMA (European Medicines Agency), which carries out the assessment in Europe.

Next, the information that Loiola presents in her speech was cross-referenced with what has already been proven about vaccines — effectiveness, safety and procedures for approving their use.

In addition, we sent an email to the Ministry of Health inquiring about the policy defined in the country for the vaccination of pregnant and lactating women. The report also sent an email to Pfizer with a request for clarification on the points mentioned in the video under review.

The report also got in touch with the Municipality of Sorocaba, in São Paulo, whose Facebook page still has Loiola’s video available, but until the publication of this report, it has not received any feedback.

The infectious disease specialist and doctor at the Hospital Sírio-Libanês Alexandre Cunha was contacted to clarify whether the video presents data that are supported by reality. Cunha also compared the claims that Loiola defends in the video with the data provided by Our World in Data, a website linked to the University of Oxford.

Finally, the report sent a message to Loiola to question the sources of the statements made by him. Until November 29, there was no return.

Verification

In internet searches, the report managed to identify that the video is an excerpt taken from the speech of Alessandro Loiola at a public hearing at the Municipality of Sorocaba. The event took place on November 10 and had as its theme the use of health passports in the region.

As of November 23, the content is no longer available on the legislature’s YouTube channel for “violating community guidelines.” However, the broadcast is still available on the Chamber’s Facebook. We contacted the Chamber, but until the publication of this report, we have not had any feedback.

The statements about the safety and efficacy of the vaccine present in the video were taken out of context by Loiola, and reverberated on social networks and WhatsApp. According to the first studies released by Pfizer on immunizers against Covid-19, in July 2020, the tests used healthy adults between 18 and 55 years old.

However, this does not mean that the immunizing agents, in their early stages, were not applied to the elderly and immunosuppressed, but that, at the beginning of the tests, the phase of greatest risk for any category of drug, and not just those developed against Covid- 19, only healthy adults were included in the surveys.

The American laboratory announced on November 18, 2020 the completion of the last phase of tests, which included the immunization of people of all age groups above 18 years old. The immunizers were 95% effective at all ages, genders and ethnicities, according to the laboratories of Pfizer and the German BioNTech.

The third phase of testing with the vaccine for this immunizer began in July 2020 and involved more than 43,000 participants in six countries, including Brazil, the United States, Germany, Turkey, South Africa and Argentina. In December 2020, the pharmaceutical filed an application for emergency use of vaccines with Anvisa.

pregnant women

The Ministry of Health announced on July 28 this year, on its official website, guidance for pregnant and postpartum women in relation to immunization against Covid-19. The folder directs that women in this group who received the first dose of AstraZeneca receive the second from Pfizer. Which means to say that immunizing agents, in addition to insurance, have their use encouraged by the Brazilian health agency, different from what the doctor says in the video under verification.

The Brazilian press also clarified, based on studies and statements by scientists, that the vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna are safe for pregnant women. The news debunking rumors about the two pharmaceuticals was highlighted in the media after circulating false information that pregnant women would have their placenta damaged if they received the doses.

Vaccine is not experimental

In an interview with Comprova, infectious disease specialist Alexandre Cunha said that the information presented in the video “does not make any sense”. “At this point in the championship, question this [a vacina] is a completely fanciful narrative.”

The expert also denied the content pointing out that the vaccine is not experimental — the same position taken by Anvisa, the FDA, the EMA and Pfizer, as widely reported by the press. It explains what can and cannot be defined, in scientific terms, as “experimental”.

“The experimental scientific concept is any product that can be a drug or a vaccine that has not gone through the phases of clinical studies. We have a pre-clinical study, which is the study carried out on animals, it can be rats, mice, guinea pigs, then we have phase one, phase two and phase three clinical studies.”

Cunha also details that vaccines against Covid-19 have already passed phase three and are now in the fourth stage of studies. “We call it phase four when the product is no longer experimental and is already being used in real life”, he says.

Being against the vaccine is a “delusional thought”, according to the infectologist. “It is absurd, today, for someone to want to speak out against the vaccine,” he says.

What does Pfizer say

In a note sent to the report, Pfizer said that the Comirnaty vaccine, developed against Covid-19, was evaluated in a phase three study and showed an overall effectiveness of 95% in the entire participating population.

The pharmaceutical company said that the action of the immunizing agent was analyzed in different groups, including patients with clinical conditions at risk, and an efficacy of 94% was observed in individuals over 65 years of age.

The laboratory also argues that the granting of definitive use registration, granted by Anvisa to the vaccine, attests to its safety, quality and efficacy in publics of different ages and immunological conditions.

Pfizer noted that the study in pregnant women also assessed the safety and tolerability of immunizations for babies, in addition to the transfer of potentially protective antibodies from mother to child.

“So far, specifically about the Comirnaty vaccine, there is no safety warning or concern, so the benefit of vaccination continues to outweigh any risk,” says the drugmaker.

More than 2.1 billion doses of the immunizing agent produced by Pfizer in partnership with BioNTech had already been distributed in more than 161 countries around the world, as of November 25, 2021.

Comparison

Loiola says in the verified video that the 20 countries with the highest HDI (Human Development Index) in the world had an increase of up to 1,600% in the number of deaths after the start of vaccination of the population.

However, it is incorrect to compare data – whether on deaths or Covid-19 cases – for two years and two different moments of the pandemic, the evolution of cases and vaccination coverage in countries. Previously, Comprova checked and defined as misleading a post that compared Covid-19 mortality in 2020 and 2021.

Also, in a previous check the UOL Check confirmed that the advance of immunization in the United States caused a drop in the number of deaths from the disease between January —which was the peak of cases in the country— and July this year. The verification used data from Johns Hopkins University used for monitoring the website Our World in Data.

The doctor

The man who appears in the video is the doctor Alessandro Loiola. Born in Vitória, Espírito Santo, Loiola appeared in another recent verification by Comprova, which pointed out that he is also registered as a professional at the Federal Council of Medicine in Minas Gerais, in the areas of general surgery and proctology.

Loiola graduated from the Santa Casa de Misericórdia School of Science in Vitória, Espírito Santo. On the website of the Federal Council of Medicine (CFM) there are three records under his name, in different states: Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo and São Paulo. Multiple registrations are possible for physicians who work in different cities.

The doctor has tens of thousands of followers on social networks such as Twitter and Instagram, where he has made several posts related to the Covid-19 pandemic, talking about “vaccine risks” and against the use of masks.

Why do we investigate?

In its fourth phase, Comprova checks suspicious content that has gone viral about the pandemic, public policies of the federal government and elections. The content under verification was shared in pocketbook groups with more than 45,000 subscribers to the Telegram.

Publications like this make people more vulnerable in relation to immunization, even though this sanitary measure is the most effective to prevent contamination, transmission and serious conditions of the disease.

This puts the population in danger, since without the doses of the vaccine, there is a greater chance of exposure to the virus and of developing the acute phase of Covid-19, with a risk of intubation and death.

Comprova has published checks that disprove internet rumors that negatively interfere with protection against Covid-19 or that may influence the Brazilian democratic process, such as the one that clarified that the PF inquiry does not investigate fraud in the voting process. Just like the internet rumor that misleads that the CDC collects data from reinfected people transmitting coronaviruses.

Misleading, for Comprova, is content taken from the original context and used in another so that its meaning changes; that it uses inaccurate data or that it induces an interpretation different from its author’s intention; content that confuses, with or without the deliberate intent to cause harm.

Comprova performed this verification based on information available on the 29th November 2021.