Fact check: False claim CDC official linked ‘debilitating illnesses’ to COVID-19 shots

Nate Trela, USA TODAY
·3 min read
321

The claim: A CDC official acknowledged 'debilitating illnesses' are 'related to' COVID-19 vaccines

A Feb. 9 Facebook video shows a doctor with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention speaking at the Jan. 26 meeting of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee.

“With respect to reports of people experiencing debilitating illnesses, we are aware of these reports of people experiencing long-lasting health problems following COVID vaccination,” Dr. Tom Shimabukuro says in the clip.

After his comments, Dr. Scott Jensen, a former Minnesota gubernatorial candidate who has expressed skepticism about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines, appears in the video and says Shimabukuro said the symptoms and illnesses are “related to” the shots.

The Facebook video was viewed more than 18,000 times in just over a week.

Follow us on Facebook! Like our page to get updates throughout the day on our latest debunks

Our rating: False

Shimabukuro says that people are reporting symptoms and illnesses they attribute to COVID-19 vaccines, not that he or the CDC acknowledged these illnesses were caused by the shots. In his full answer, he stresses that the reports were anecdotal and that no causal link had been established between the vaccines and any “debilitating illnesses.”

Anecdotal reports of illnesses do not prove vaccines are related

The clip of Shimabukuro, the deputy director of the CDC’s Immunization Safety Office, features a portion of a long comment he made during a discussion of reports entered into the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. That system is designed so the public can report symptoms, side effects or conditions they believe could be related to a vaccine.

Immediately before the comments in the clip, Shimabukuro highlighted the shortcomings of drawing conclusions from reports in VAERS.

“That is a spontaneous reporting system,” he said, according to video and a transcript of the meeting. “Anyone can report – a patient, a parent, a healthcare provider – and we accept all of those reports without judging the clinical seriousness or how plausible the adverse event may be with respect to causation.”

Fact check: Reports of adverse events due to COVID-19 vaccines are unverified

The doctor goes on to state that some of the reports of adverse effects related to the COVID-19 vaccines have been investigated.

"In some cases, the clinical presentation of people suffering these health problems is variable and no specific medical cause for the symptoms have been found," says Shimabukuro.

Shimabukuro told USA TODAY that side effects associated with COVID-19 vaccines include soreness at the injection site, fever, muscle aches, allergic reactions and "rare cases of myocarditis associated with COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, mostly in adolescent and young adult males."

He noted the CDC has received reports through VAERS of people experiencing “debilitating and long-lasting health problems” following COVID-19 vaccination, but Shimabukuro said those issues could be coincidental.

“Currently, there are no epidemiologic data from safety monitoring to suggest that COVID-19 vaccines are causing these types of health problems,” Shimabukuro said in an email.

USA TODAY has previously reported that reports in VAERS is unverified and does not prove a vaccination causes illnesses.

The VAERS website includes a disclaimer that states, “VAERS reports may contain information that is incomplete, inaccurate, coincidental or unverifiable. Reports to VAERS can also be biased. As a result, there are limitations on how the data can be used scientifically."

USA TODAY reached out to Jensen for comment.

Lead Stories and the Associated Press also debunked this claim.

Our fact-check sources:

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here.

Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: CDC acknowledged illness reports, not vaccine link