It is misleading that Covid-19 vaccine caused increased deaths in children

The post made on a Telegram channel called Médicos pela Vida, an anti-vaccination group, is misleading. In it, the author states, right in the first sentence, that official data show a 54% increase in deaths among male children since receiving the immunizing agent against Covid-19.

Then, the post, verified by Projeto Comprova, reproduces the translation of a publication on the British site The Exposé and a video by doctor Vernon Coleman, in which he criticizes the use of masks and the role of governments in confronting the micron, a new variant of the coronavirus. The Exposé portal is known for publishing texts with disinformation related to Covid-19.

The Exposé post and Coleman’s video do not cite the alleged increase in child deaths due to the Covid-19 vaccine. There is, on the website, another publication that makes this connection, but there is no research attesting to the relationship of infant deaths and the application of immunizing agents.

It is also important to highlight that Coleman’s video has denial content. The WHO (World Health Organization) recommends the use of masks to help reduce the transmission of Covid-19, as well as frequently alerts to the importance of immunization as a prevention of serious illnesses that can progress to death.

In addition to the original publication not addressing child deaths, Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency) and doctors consulted by Comprova deny the existence of indicators that point to the growth in the number of deaths of boys as a result of immunization.

In the description of the channel where the post was made, there is a link to the website of a Brazilian institution, of the same name, which defends early treatment against Covid -19 (a practice not recommended by the WHO), but the group claims not be responsible for the publication.

Comprova classified the content as misleading because it uses inaccurate data in a publication that confuses, with or without the deliberate intent to cause harm.

how we check

First, we Googled for official data related to the increase in child deaths due to the Covid-19 vaccine. The search did not yield any results. We then looked for information on news sites about which countries are already vaccinating children and whether there are reports of serious side effects or deaths.

We entered the link provided in the post and watched the full video of the British doctor Vernon Coleman, posted on The Exposé website.

We then search for the website address overlaid on the video image. On the portal, we find the video and the complete transcript of what is said by Coleman. In the video, he criticizes the press and says he has no public e-mail, which made it impossible for the report to contact the Briton.

We spoke with the secretary of the Scientific Department of Immunizations at the SBP (Brazilian Society of Pediatrics), Tânia Petraglia, and the director of the SBIm (Brazilian Society of Immunizations), Renato Kfouri, and the two said they were not aware of any study that would confirm the verified content.

Finally, the report sought out Doctors for Life, which said it was not responsible for the channel on the Telegram where the post was made, even though that was the name of the group in the messaging application. There is no other way to contact the author.

Verification

child deaths

The vaccination of children is still a recent strategy in the world, which prioritized the immunization of age groups and groups with a higher risk of death in case of infection with Sars-CoV-2. For this reason, Renato Kfouri, director of SBIm, says that there is not enough time after vaccination to report an important adverse event that would provide the basis for the data mentioned in the post.

The director points out that the study related to Pfizer’s vaccine, the only one being applied in the US in this age group, was carried out with about 2,500 children and verified points such as immune response, efficacy and safety.

Kfouri also claims that carrying out small studies during the licensing phase is common, as well as for the vaccination of adults. The director notes that specialists continue to carry out pharmacovigilance after the start of the application and that this still points to the safety standard observed in clinical trials.

“The first Covid-19 vaccines, when they were licensed, were also studied in 10,000, 20,000, 30,000, 40,000 individuals. Today, there are already 7 billion doses applied worldwide, reaffirming the safety of these vaccines. It’s the same with a child,” says Kfouri.

Pediatrician Tânia Petraglia also does not recognize the statistics presented in the post. The doctor explains that the United States works with spontaneous notification of adverse events. With this, anyone can report a reaction to the Covid-19 vaccine. The notification is then cleared by the country’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

According to her, the country has not released data on the increase in child deaths allegedly caused by the Covid-19 vaccine. “To my knowledge, no country has suspended vaccination in children for disproportionate deaths or serious serious adverse events.”

Although the vaccination of children has not yet been authorized in Brazil, Anvisa is evaluating Pfizer’s request to start immunizing the public from 5 to 11 years old and, in addition to the data provided by the pharmaceutical company, it monitors the scenario in other countries.

In a statement, the agency informs that it monitors the data related to the vaccine around the world through an adverse event monitoring network. “There is no data that indicates an increase in deaths among male children as a result of the use of vaccines”, maintains the body responsible for approving the use of immunizing agents in Brazil.

Under 12 years old

A survey carried out by the Reuters news agency in early November indicated that nine countries had already started vaccinating the public under the age of 12 years. At that time, immunization reached children in Bahrain, Chile, China, Cuba, El Salvador, United Arab Emirates, United States, Ecuador and Indonesia, according to information from the BBC. These places use different vaccines: Sinopharm, Sinovac (Coronavac), Sovereign 02 and Pfizer.

At the end of the month, the EMA (European Medicines Agency) authorized a reduced version of the Pfizer vaccine, for children, in the countries that make up the European Union.

Italy, Greece and Portugal have already incorporated the measure. On December 7th, health authorities in Spain also released the vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 years from December 15th.

On the same day, given the new wave of Covid-19 cases in Europe, the WHO issued an alert to increase the protection of children, the age group most affected at the moment.

No brazil

Anvisa, in a statement, told Comprova that, until December 8, the only manufacturer that had requested an assessment by the agency to include the public under 12 years old in the package insert for the vaccine against Covid-19 was Pfizer.

The order was sent to Anvisa on November 12th and is within the 30-day period foreseen for analysis. On Dec. 6, the most recent update on the request, the drugmaker forwarded additional information to the agency, which had required more data to assess the implementation of the immunization strategy in the 5- to 11-year-old public.

new variant

South Africa warned of Ômicron late last month, saying the strain could trigger a new outbreak of infections. Scientists in the country reported on December 10, however, that they see no signs that the new strain is causing more serious conditions. Attendances resulting from the disease increased in the South African country, but deaths did not have the same escalation.

Pharmaceutical companies are also conducting studies on the effectiveness of vaccines available to stop Ômicron, which has already reached more than 50 countries, including Brazil. Early analyzes indicate that, with three doses, the variant can be neutralized.

In the country, the booster dose was authorized for the entire adult population.

Or group of doctors

The post that deals with the increase in deaths of boys as a result of the vaccine was shared on a channel on the Telegram called “Doctors for Life”, but the group that officially calls itself that, says it has no relationship with the publication.

The advice of doctors who defend the so-called early treatment, without proven efficacy against Covid-19 and whose application is not recognized for these cases by organizations such as the WHO, reported that they do not have a channel on the Telegram.

“The entity reinforces that it repudiates the disclosure of erroneous information that aim to lead society and the medical class itself to incur interpretation errors. Whether on the part of social networks, digital media and the press,” he says, in a statement.

Who is Vernon Coleman

Long before the Covid-19 pandemic, Briton Vernon Coleman already collected controversies due to his stance against conventional medical care and the use of vaccines, according to a 2006 report in Época Magazine. Graduated in Medicine, he abandoned the practice 45 years and began to criticize the performance of professionals in the area.

In March of this year, he was the target of a PolitiFact check due to a video in which it said that vaccines are weapons of mass destruction, an allegation denied in the verification carried out by the North American website. In this article, among other information about Coleman’s profile, the team recalled that he denied the existence of HIV and that he published a book, in 2019, that tried to discredit the effectiveness and safety of vaccines. In this same verification, PolitiFact points out that Vernon’s medical license was revoked, although he presents himself on its website as a general practitioner.

More recently, Reuters pointed out, in a check, that Vernon misleadingly used the abstract of an article, which had not been peer-reviewed, to justify his theory that Covid-19 vaccines would pose a risk to people. people.

Why do we investigate?

In its fourth phase, Comprova checks suspicious content about the federal government, pandemics and elections that have reached a high level of viralization. This Telegram publication reached more than 26,000 views as of December 10th.

Disinformation content is frequent in the approaches to Covid-19 since the beginning of the health crisis. First, to minimize the risks of disease or promote ineffective medicines, and now, to question the efficacy and safety of vaccines.

This practice is harmful because it leads many people to refuse immunization, a strategy that, so far, has proven to be the most effective to prevent serious cases and deaths caused by the coronavirus.

Comprova has already made several checks related to the pandemic, such as the one that misleadingly suggested that Covid-19 mutations made vaccines innocuous, or the false post that claimed that South Africa did not recognize the omicron variant or even the coronavirus.

For Comprova, misleading 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 December 10th of 2021.