By Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba, UK
The covid19 pandemic is a tragic reminder of what happens when public health promotion is misunderstood, underfunded, and neglected. There is a common myth with the mRNA covid19 vaccine –that it somehow causes infertility. First, let’s talk about the origin of this myth. It originated with anti-vaccine advocates who alleged that the spike protein targeted by the vaccine is similar to a protein found in the placenta.
I first came across these claims of infertility bollocks from Zed Phoenix, a YouTuber – ” Lumbuye ” style. He quotes a 1989 document and claims GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) had a failed trial in which 60 out of 60 women in the trial became infertile, and a male variant of the vaccine caused infertility in them also. Zed is has made a series of YouTube videos on how Bill Gates has infiltrated UK medicine, academia and how he has corrupted the UK Vaccine Network.
The propagandists suggest that the spike protein of covid has sequence homology to syncytin-1 that’s involved in placental development. As the mRNA vaccines are based on producing the exact same spike protein as the natural virus this would cause the exact same issue if it were true. The issue being that your immune system would incorrectly recognise syncytin-1 as foreign. Anyway, that’s what propagandists say.
Nevertheless, a mRNA vaccine will not make you infertile — it is based on producing the spike protein of the actual covid virus. The spike protein is 1273 amino acids long and has a region of about 5 amino acids that align to syncytin-1. You will likely find this for any other protein (e.g., haemoglobin, collagen). If this insignificant amount of homology caused cross reactivity, we’d have much bigger problems than infertility. People would literally die immediately after birth. mRNA vaccines focus on the proteins as opposed to the whole virus and don’t contain any infectious elements. For COVID-19 this is the spike protein and completely harmless in isolation.
In addition, if I may ask, why would propagandists advocate young people to just aim for herd immunity if the spike protein of covid caused infertility?
All participants in a vaccine trial are monitored for any effects. If there is any issues, the trials are stopped, and the participant is thoroughly checked before the trial can start again.
The trials expressly forbid anyone in it from getting pregnant for months around the point of receiving the vaccine, purely because no pregnant women were involved in the trials at the beginning. Besides, this is standard procedure in all clinical trials.
However, there have been some studies linking Covid (the virus) to infertility amongst many other problems, as it is a systemic disease effecting multiple organs especially with an advanced disease. Among women, getting covid may cause harm, including menstrual disorder, preterm birth, stillbirth, being very sick during pregnancy, and, in some cases, even the mother dying.
Research on hamsters, such as rats, has shown that Covid 19 can affect the male reproductive system and cause male infertility. It should be noted that “hamsters” are considered to be the “most similar” animals to humans, and often any medical research is first tested on them.
Therefore, if one is infected with COVID-19, it is recommended that they do not attempt to conceive until their treatment is complete. It is also recommended tests for COVID-19 be performed on infertile couples before using assisted reproductive technology (ART).
Bottom line: There is currently no evidence that COVID-19 vaccination causes any problems with pregnancy, including the development of the placenta. In addition, there is no evidence that fertility problems are a side effect of any vaccine, including COVID-19 vaccines. Please, watch out for posts that are trying their best to create fear mongering. You have to question anything coming from a dubious source.
The problem is we have scientists that make up sage who have been shown to mislead the people with their various predictions. Hence there’s distrust. The government ministers themselves have allowed Covid money to literally disappear with no accountability, hence, more distrust there. Then you have the likes of Bobi Wine and other politicians who tell people to do one thing, but they(leaders) do the opposite. Then, some of Uganda’s health experts that give people water, or fake vaccines, instead of proper vaccines, which leads to complete distrust.
So, essentially, it’s coming down to people like people, like, us — with no apparent axe to grind, to educate/convince the people on something that is as important as vaccination.
