The claim
“Evidence Suggests the COVID Shots Are Responsible for Soaring RSV Cases Throughout the US & Canada,”
“Evidence suggests that COVID vaccination is responsible for the increase in respiratory syncytial virus cases in the United States and Canada,” reads a Nov. 3, 2022, Instagram post.
Our conclusion
This statement is not true and experts consider it to be a misinterpretation of the data. Nor has such a risk been identified at the population level. In addition, vaccination rates among infants and young children are too low to be associated with the increase in respiratory syncytial virus cases in Canada and the United States.
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Various postings on social media claim that clinical trial results from Pfizer and Moderna show that corona vaccination increases the risk of infection with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in children (compare HERE and HERE ). These and similar claims spread on Facebook and Instagram as rising cases of the disease, which can cause the chest infection bronchiolitis in infants, led to high rates of hospitalizations in several countries.
The reason: Respiratory syncytial virus infections are currently spreading rapidly in Canada and the USA ( more on this here ). The virus typically infects children as young as two years old and is most common during the winter months. The airborne virus usually causes cold-like symptoms such as a runny nose, cough and fever, which are usually mild but in some cases can cause serious illness in infants.
With the end of many pandemic measures and increased contact with other people, especially indoors and now also the colder season, transmission of the respiratory syncytial virus and other respiratory pathogens is increasing again.
Corona vaccination and RSV: No connection apparent!
These cases were of course documented and investigated. In fact, the results showed that 0.4 percent of children ages two to five who received the Moderna vaccine in the coronavirus shot experienced RSV infections within 28 days, compared to 0.1 percent of those Placebo recipients. Ergo: There were four times as many infections in the vaccinated group as in the unvaccinated group
But these values are not proof of a connection, as the postings on social media claim. AFP's fact-checkers looked closely and asked. It turned out that these numbers are not statistically significant at all, because on the one hand both values are very low and on the other hand there are far too few children who have even received a corona vaccination at this age.
“We are talking about very small numbers here (eg: <0.1 percent vs 0.4 percent),” said Michelle Cohen, an Ontario physician, in a November 9 email. “So it's quite a distortion to say that kids who received the vaccine have four times the RSV.”
https://cedmohub.eu/covid-19-vaccination-does-not-increase-risk-of-rsv-infection/
Given the low vaccination rates for Covid-19 in children, the attempt at interpretation, as well as the establishment of a connection with regard to RSV, is a very unlikely explanation for the increase in infections with the respiratory syncytial virus. The number of children in this age group who are actually vaccinated is quite low, but the number of RSV infections is extremely high.
The entire fact check
"There is no data to support or show that the Covid vaccination makes children more susceptible to RSV," Alon Vaisman, an infectious disease expert at the University Health Network in Toronto, told AFP's Fact Check. He goes on to say: "If that were true - that the Covid vaccination brings a higher risk of infection - then we would have seen this effect across all age groups a long time ago, but we haven't."
For further information, the entire fact check is available on the AFP website ( here ).
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