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 that vaccinated people are “more likely” to infect others with coronavirus “super-strains”.
But the WHO and other immunologists said that these claims are unfounded and have no scientific basis.
“There is no evidence for this,” a WHO spokesman, Euronews. “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.
A March survey by Ipsos found that only 59% of adults in France want to be vaccinated against COVID-19, compared to Italy (85%) and Spain (82%).
“The number one message is ‘get the vaccine’ because it will stop the virus,” said Professor Luke O’Neill, an immunologist at Trinity College Dublin.
“Any kind of suggestion that vaccines are making things worse is the completely opposite message to be conveyed,” he added.
“It is an emergency, we must vaccinate as many people as possible to prevent the emergence of variants and prevent the spread of the virus.”
Disinformation spreading online
Since last week, several French social media accounts have claimed, without evidence, that the COVID-19 vaccines are causing the emergence of variants of the virus.
Several pages shared a link to an article, which claimed that vaccinated citizens are “walking bacteriological time bombs” and a “threat to society”.
The article went on to falsely claim that vaccinated people are “more likely to infect others with super-strains”.
Theories were shared on several Facebook and Twitter pages, such as in Lyon and Nice, as well as on the Swiss border. A Twitter account that promotes the same false claim has more than 6,300 followers.
Meanwhile, a Facebook page that shares the article’s content 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, reiterated that there is no evidence to support the article’s claims.
“Vaccines will decrease the replication of the virus, do not cause variants,” added Professor O’Neill.
The science behind the new COVID-19 variants
Variants and new strains of the new coronavirus have emerged in recent months in South Africa, Brazil and the United Kingdom, which have been reported to be more infectious.
But the behavior of the variants is not linked to the COVID-19 vaccines and can instead originate when the virus is transmitted and spread.
Professor O’Neill told Euronews that the emergence of variants of the virus is a “random process”.
“Each time the virus divides and makes a copy of itself, it makes a small mistake and there is a chance that those errors are more problematic,” he said.
“Vaccines stimulate the human immune system to kill the virus, which prevents it from replicating and, therefore, the chance of variants appearing is reduced.”
“The vaccine is increasing the immune response, so variants are not appearing in vaccinated people, they are more likely to appear in people who do not have an immune response.”
Referring to the flu vaccine, Professor O’Neill said that “there has never been a known vaccine that has driven evolutionary change and caused more dangerous variants.
In a statement to Euronews, WHO also reiterated that vaccines will reduce the spread of new strains of viruses.
“When a virus – including SARS-CoV-2 – is circulating widely in the population and causing many infections, the likelihood of mutating the virus increases,” said a spokesman.
“The more opportunities a virus has to spread, the more it replicates – and the more opportunities it has to change.
“Distributing 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.”