By Reuters Fact Check Dec. 16, 2021
Source: Reuters
Photo Source: Unsplash, Kayla Speid
Fact Check-Video of Dr Anthony Fauci discussing vaccines with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg does not say COVID-19 vaccines make recipients more vulnerable to infection.
A clip shared widely online of Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), discussing vaccines with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg dates to March 2020 and pre-dates COVID-19 vaccine rollouts by many months.
The 27-second clip from a livestream conversation between Fauci and Zuckerberg shows the pair discussing different stages of clinical trials.
During this, Fauci says: “This would not be the first time if it happened, that a vaccine that looked good in initial safety actually made people worse. There was a history of respiratory syncytial virus for children which paradoxically made the children worse. One of the HIV vaccines that we tested several years ago actually made individuals more likely to get infected.”
Some users online have shared the clip in Dec. 2021 claiming it shows an admission by Fauci that COVID-19 vaccines are ineffective.
One user who shared the video on Twitter on Dec. 13 said: “Dr. Fauci opens up the possibility that the COVID-19 vaccine could be making people more likely to be infected by the virus” (here). The video had over 1.1 million views at the time of writing. Another user who shared the video on Instagram said: “Oh thank God we’re FINALLY rounding this corner where they admit it makes it worse , finally - my goodness I’m exhausted” (here). Examples of the clip shared on social media can be seen (here), (here), (here), (here), (here) and (here). The comments were made by Fauci long before COVID-19 vaccine rollouts, and the short clip circulating online does not show the context of the comments made. Fauci’s quote was a hypothetical in the context of needing trials to determine vaccine safety.
The conversation was recorded live on Zuckerberg’s Facebook page on March 19, 2020, in the initial stages of the pandemic, well before vaccines began to be administered in late Dec. 2020 (here), (Watch Mark Zuckerberg and Dr. Anthony Fauci discuss COVID-19 pandemic - Livestream).
The context of the clip is better understood when listening to Zuckerberg’s question that led to Fauci’s response.
At 24 mins, 24 seconds in the livestream, Zuckerberg says: “One of the questions I’ve heard from a number of people is: doing the safety trials is obviously incredibly important because you want to ensure that you’re not injecting people with something that could be harmful. But once you have that, why not push harder on rolling it out more aggressively, even if you don’t know how effective it is? What’s the public health rationale and thinking behind needing to prove that it’s extremely effective before rolling out something that you know is safe?” (here).
Fauci then tells Zuckerberg that trials are necessary to determine whether a vaccine is safe for use, not that COVID-19 vaccines had been found to be ineffective or unsafe.
Fauci’s full comment in response to Zuckerberg can be seen at 24 mins 50s (here “Okay, that’s a good question. The initial safety study, Mark, is to see if I inject it in the arm, does it have some sort of idiosyncratic or bad reaction? There’s another element to safety, and that is, if you vaccinate someone and they make an antibody response, and then they get exposed and infected, does the response that you induced actually enhance the infection and make it worse?”
“And the only way you’ll know that is if you do an extended study not in a normal volunteer who has no risk of infection, but in people who are out there in a risk situation. This would not be the first time, if it happened, that a vaccine that looked good in initial safety actually made people worse. There was the history of the respiratory syncytial virus vaccine in children which, paradoxically, made the children worse. One of the HIV vaccines that we tested several years ago actually made individuals more likely to get infected. So, you can’t just go out there and give it unless you feel that, in the field, when someone is getting infected and exposed, being vaccinated doesn’t make them worse. That’s why you’ve got to do a trial.”
Reuters previously addressed the false claim that COVID-19 vaccines did not go through clinical trials (here). Reuters also fact-checked an earlier video of Fauci and it did not show him saying COVID-19 vaccines make recipients worse. (here )
In a statement to Reuters, the NIAID said: “There always is a theoretical risk of unintended events with any new vaccine. This is why the development of candidate vaccines proceeds in a stepwise fashion, starting with laboratory studies, then progressing to studies in animal models that mimic the human immune response, and finally to carefully controlled human clinical trials where participants are monitored closely for any adverse events. After a candidate vaccine is authorized or approved by the FDA, rigorous post-marketing safety surveillance is conducted to identify even very rare safety concerns.”
“This is precisely the process NIAID has followed during the COVID-19 pandemic. As of Dec. 13, 2021, the COVID-19 vaccines approved or authorized by the FDA have been administered to more than 485 million people in the United States (here) and have proved to be very safe and effective. Worldwide, more than 8.2 billion doses have been given with an outstanding safety profile,” they added (covid19.who.int/).
Zuckerberg had another livestream conversation with Fauci on his personal Facebook page in July 2020 and is viewable (here).
VERDICT False. A clip from a livestream conversation between Dr Anthony Fauci and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg is not proof that COVID-19 vaccines are ineffective because it predates their existence. This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.
Note: None of the COVID 19 Vaccines have undergone the standard 7 - 15 required years for clinical trails.
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