Viral social media posts are claiming that the coronavirus vaccine that is being hailed as the best way to fight against the deadly disease is actually causing a number of adverse effects among inoculated individuals.
The data on the post, however, is not verified or causal and captions that there have been 818,042 cases of adverse effects and several other issues among vaccinated people. Many online users that shared the post criticized the efficacy of the vaccine in protecting individuals from the infection.
Coronavirus Vaccines' Adverse Effects?
One social media user said that experts who said that the vaccines were 100% safe and effective were lying to the world. They added that people should do more research to learn the truth about vaccines. Another user warned vaccinated people that some "read bad chemistry" could start working in the future.
The data, which was allegedly obtained from the United States Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), was gathered from reports of healthcare providers, vaccine manufacturers, and the public. This means that the information received could be incomplete, inaccurate, coincidental, or unverifiable, Reuters reported.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that reports of adverse events to VAERS after an individual has been vaccinated, such as death, did not necessarily mean it was the treatment that caused the problem. The agency noted that healthcare providers were required to report all deaths of a patient who had coronavirus even if it was unknown whether or not the vaccine was to blame.
The situation comes as a panel of independent advisers to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is recommending for the agency to issue emergency authorization of the coronavirus vaccine made by Pfizer-BioNTech. This authorization would allow the treatment to be administered to children aged five to 11 years old. Seventeen members of the panel voted in support of the recommendation while one was abstention.
Pfizer previously conducted clinical trials and notified the FDA panel that its coronavirus vaccine was safe and 90.7% effective in preventing COVID-19 infections in the aforementioned age group. While the FDA typically goes along with the recommendation of its expert panels, it is not required to do so, NPR reported.
Vaccination of Young Children
The situation, however, has caused concern to rise among parents who do not plan on allowing their kids to get the vaccines right away. This comes as the FDA is expected to approve the panel's recommendation later this week, which would make roughly 28 million kids eligible to get the coronavirus vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech.
Additionally, Moderna said that its vaccine was safe and effective for use on children aged six to 11 years. The pharmaceutical company planned to submit data from its clinical trials to the FDA in the "near term."
However, only about a third of parents are planning to get their children in the age group vaccinated right away once authorization for a vaccine is given. The situation comes as in-school masking and social distancing between students have been the talk of the nation, CNBC reported.
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