AFP
This article was published by AFP:
Articles claim a study found that the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer-BioNTech may cause diseases such as Alzheimer’s. But medical experts say the study linking mRNA shots to neurodegenerative diseases has no scientific basis, the paper is published in a for-profit journal, and is written by a doctor with a history of opposing vaccination.
The article was republished by Global Research, a Canadian website the US State Department has described as “deeply enmeshed in Russia’s broader disinformation and propaganda ecosystem.”
The article was shared as countries push to vaccinate their populations against Covid-19, which has killed more than 3.3 million people worldwide. In some cases, these efforts have been hampered by fears of the vaccine based on inaccurate claims spreading across the internet.
More than 264 million Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered in the United States, while Canada has put more than 16.8 million shots into arms.
Most were Pfizer’s and Moderna’s mRNA vaccines, though shots that use different technology are also available in the United States from Johnson & Johnson and in Canada from AstraZeneca.
The mRNA vaccines differ from previously offered inoculations in that instead of confronting the immune system with part of a virus in a weakened or deactivated form to build antibodies, they give it a “blueprint” of a part of the virus (the spike protein) that the body can then recognize and fight when confronted by it later.
But Dr Neil Cashman, professor of neurology at the University of British Columbia, told AFP: “There is absolutely no evidence that RNA vaccines (Pfizer, Moderna) can promote risk of neurodegeneration in humans or test animals.”
Articles claim a study found that the Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer-BioNTech may cause diseases such as Alzheimer’s. But medical experts say the study linking mRNA shots to neurodegenerative diseases has no scientific basis, the paper is published in a for-profit journal, and is written by a doctor with a history of opposing vaccination.
The article was republished by Global Research, a Canadian website the US State Department has described as “deeply enmeshed in Russia’s broader disinformation and propaganda ecosystem.”
The article was shared as countries push to vaccinate their populations against Covid-19, which has killed more than 3.3 million people worldwide. In some cases, these efforts have been hampered by fears of the vaccine based on inaccurate claims spreading across the internet.
More than 264 million Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered in the United States, while Canada has put more than 16.8 million shots into arms.
Most were Pfizer’s and Moderna’s mRNA vaccines, though shots that use different technology are also available in the United States from Johnson & Johnson and in Canada from AstraZeneca.
The mRNA vaccines differ from previously offered inoculations in that instead of confronting the immune system with part of a virus in a weakened or deactivated form to build antibodies, they give it a “blueprint” of a part of the virus (the spike protein) that the body can then recognize and fight when confronted by it later.
But Dr Neil Cashman, professor of neurology at the University of British Columbia, told AFP: “There is absolutely no evidence that RNA vaccines (Pfizer, Moderna) can promote risk of neurodegeneration in humans or test animals.”
