Category: COVID-19

Claim: A common myth around the COVID-19 vaccines that has circulated around social media is that they cause infertility.
Rating: This claim is FALSE. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said the vaccines are safe for anyone who is pregnant or trying to get pregnant. Their recommendation has been echoed by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, who have stated that the vaccines do not cause infertility.  In addition, numerous studies have found that the vaccines do not affect fertility in men or women, and do not affect pregnant women and their fetuses. 

Claim: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine is safe for children 12 years old and above.
Rating: This claim is TRUE. The CDC recommendations have been echoed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the European Union, and the World Health Organization. The Pfizer vaccine is safe for children 12 years old and above—within the age group 12-15, the vaccine was shown to be 100% effective at preventing COVID-19 infections. Vaccinating kids will also enable them to go back to in-person school.

Claim: Many Vietnamese Americans believe that the two-shot vaccines (from manufacturers Pfizer and Moderna) is better than the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine. 
Rating: This claim is FALSE. All of the vaccines are highly effective at preventing severe COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations, and death. Many medical experts, including White House advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci, say that the best COVID-19 vaccine is the one that’s available to you.

Claim: The recent pause of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine in the U.S. has led many people to believe that the vaccine causes blood clots. 
Rating: This claim is MOSTLY FALSE. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommending a pause on the J&J vaccine does not mean that the vaccine is unsafe. While 15 people who have received the vaccine developed a rare form of blood clot, the CDC did not say that the J&J vaccine causes blood clots. The pause was recommended “out of an abundance of caution,” to figure out what caused the clots, and how doctors should treat patients who develop these clots. Dr. Anthony Fauci has said that the risk of getting a blood clot from the J&J vaccine is less than one in a million. Patients are more likely to get blood clots from COVID-19, or from taking certain medications, such as birth control. On April 23, the CDC reapproved the J&J vaccine for public use, saying the benefits outweigh the risk.