The World Health Organization (WHO) has rejected claims that COVID-19 vaccines are causing new variants of the virus.
Reports have circulated online in France saying vaccinated people are “more likely” to infect other people with “super-strains” of the coronavirus.
But the WHO and other immunologists have said these claims are unfounded and have no scientific basis.
“There is no evidence of this,” a WHO Euronews spokesman said. “Vaccination is part of the solution to suppress transmission along with existing public health measures.”
Online misinformation about coronavirus and vaccines has been a thorn in the side of European governments and their inoculation strategies.
According to a survey conducted in March by Ipsos, only 59% of adults in France intend to be vaccinated against COVID-19, compared to Italy (85%) and Spain (82%).
“The number one message is ‘get the vaccine out,’ as it will stop the virus,” said Professor Luke O’Neill, an immunologist at Trinity College Dublin.
“Any suggestion that vaccines make things worse is completely the opposite message,” he added.
“It’s an emergency. We need to vaccinate as many people as we can to prevent variants from appearing and prevent the virus from spreading.”
The misinformation spreads online
Since last week, several French social media accounts have stated, without evidence, that COVID-19 vaccines are causing the appearance of variants of the virus.
Several pages shared a link to an article stating that vaccinated citizens “walked with bacteriological time bombs” and posed a “threat to society.”
The article falsely stated that vaccinated people “are the most likely to infect other people with super strains.”
The theories have been shared on several Facebook and Twitter pages, such as Lyon and Nice, as well as on the border with Switzerland. A Twitter account that makes the same false claim has more than 6,300 followers.
Meanwhile, a Facebook page that shares the content of the article has more than 33,000 likes and 52,000 followers.
But the WHO, which has been tracking mutations and variants of the virus since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, has reiterated that there is no evidence to support the article’s claims.
“Vaccines will decrease virus replication, they don’t cause variants,” Professor O’Neill added.
The science behind the new variants of COVID-19
Variants and new strains of the new coronavirus have emerged in recent months in South Africa, Brazil and the UK, which were reported to be more infectious.
But the behavior of the variants is not related to COVID-19 vaccines, but can originate when the virus is transmitted and spread.
Professor O’Neill told Euronews that the appearance of virus variants is a “random process”.
“Every time the virus splits and makes a copy of it, it makes a small mistake and there is a chance that those errors will be more problematic,” he said.
“Vaccines trigger the human immune system to kill the virus, which stops replicating and therefore decreases the chance of variants appearing.”
“The vaccine increases the immune response, so no variants appear in vaccinated people, they are more likely to appear in people who do not have an immune response.”
Pointing to the flu vaccine, Professor O’Neill said “no” vaccine has been known to have driven evolutionary change and caused more dangerous variants.
In a statement to Euronews, the WHO also reiterated that vaccines will reduce the spread of new strains of virus.
“When a virus (including SARS-CoV-2) circulates widely in a population and causes many infections, it increases the likelihood that the virus will mutate,” a spokesman said.
“The more opportunities a virus has to spread, the more it replicates and the more opportunities it has to experience change.
“Deploying vaccines as quickly and widely as possible is critical to protecting people before they are exposed to the virus and the risk of new variants.”