Since the early days of the COVID-19 vaccination program, disinformation about whether the vaccines can induce multiple sclerosis has swirled around social media.
Recently, there’s been a resurgence of this type of post, sparked by a report published on the World Health Organization (WHO) website titled “Covid-19 vaccination can induce multiple sclerosis via cross-reactive CD4+ T cells recognizing SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and myelin peptides.” One post on Twitter, sharing that headline, had been viewed nearly 2 million times, re-tweeted more than 12,000 times, and received more than 18,000 “likes” in less than a week.
Checking the facts
While the report has an attention-grabbing title, its research seems to be less than conclusive. Still, social media platforms have picked it up — including YouTube and Reddit in addition to Twitter — and the posts have created so much buzz that The Associated Press felt compelled to publish a fact-check story headlined “Posts misrepresent research on multiple sclerosis and COVID-19 vaccines found in WHO database.” The AP labeled the claims on social media “false” and reported these facts, as well as others, to support its assessment:
- The item on the WHO website was an abstract, not peer-reviewed, that examined only two cases of people with MS.
- Though the research found there might be a potential link to COVID-19 vaccines, the abstract didn’t definitively conclude the vaccines triggered either of those two MS cases.
- The research paper was not endorsed by WHO, which has cautioned that the research is limited and additional studies are needed to confirm the findings.
COVID-19 vaccine studies
A survey released in late 2021 reviewed side effects reported by more than 700 people with MS following their COVID-19 vaccinations. I was among them. Conducted by iConquerMS, a people-powered research organization, it reported the side effects for the respondents with MS were about the same as those reported by the general population. There was no indication that the vaccines were an MS trigger.
At about the same time, an Italian study of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine found no evidence that it increased the risk of MS relapses in the two months following vaccination.
The other side of that coin was reported in a study this year by researchers at the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. It concluded that the virus that causes COVID-19 — the virus, not the vaccine — might also trigger an MS-like disease in some individuals.
Read past the headlines
Although I believe the benefits of the COVID-19 vaccines far outweigh their possible risks — my wife and I have received five shots so far and are about to get our sixth — I respect the concerns of people who worry that they may be harmed if they’re vaccinated. But I hope they aren’t forming their opinion about a vaccine’s safety based solely upon a six- or seven-word headline or a social media post.
Read past the headline to get the full story, which the headline may not accurately reflect. Most importantly, resist the temptation to post information on social media based only on a headline or a study’s title. Helping to keep the disinformation level low will help us all better navigate the information seas, which have become pretty choppy lately.
(A version of this post first appeared as my column on the MS News Today website.)
(Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay)
