CLAIM: Vegans cannot take COVID-19 vaccines because they contain animal products.
CONCLUSION: INACCURATE. No COVID-19 vaccine currently in use contains animal products. Continue reading Do COVID-19 vaccines contain animal products?
CLAIM: Northern Ireland produces enough to feed 10 million people (annually).
CONCLUSION: ACCURATE WITH CONSIDERATION. The Northern Ireland agricultural sector produces enough protein to meet the needs of 10m adults. However, production is only sufficient to meet the energy requirements of 4.7m adults. Continue reading Does Northern Ireland produce enough to feed 10 million people?
The issue of how COVID-19 vaccines may impact fertility and/or pregnancy continues to be live. Health Minister Robin Swann told the Stormont health committee on 14 January 2021, that an anti-vaccination group targeted young female healthcare staff outside vaccination centres, saying COVID-19 vaccination would affect their fertility. He added that this message was “quite negative, quite wrong, potentially quite damaging”. This was also reported in the local media.
These particular anti-vaccination campaigners are not alone in this view. Theories are being spread across social media, particularly about the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, about how a protein on the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 virus (the virus which causes COVID-19), called a “spike protein” works.
This is where it gets a little complicated. Continue reading COVID-19 vaccinations: fertility and pregnancy
CLAIM: A quarter of Northern Ireland’s population that is unvaccinated for COVID-19 is unlikely to ever get the vaccine.
CONCLUSION: ACCURATE WITH CONSIDERATION. A survey by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) reported that 24% of respondents who had not been vaccinated said that they were “fairly unlikely” or “very unlikely” to get the vaccine. However the headline fails to give context. Only 22% of respondents have not been vaccinated, so the cohort unlikely to get the vaccine represents 5% of those surveyed. Continue reading Is a quarter of Northern Ireland’s COVID-19 unvaccinated population unlikely to get jab?
Some suggestions when handling COVID-19 leaflets
30 July 2021
A number of leaflets about COVID-19 vaccines and their safety have been circulating in Northern Ireland. FactCheckNI has previously fact checked many of these claims. What is notable is how these leaflets are designed to communicate a lot of information, and more often than not are attributed to a specific group that may not previously have been well known (or indeed, known at all). Continue reading Some suggestions when handling COVID-19 leaflets
On 16 April 2021, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation advised that all pregnant people should be offered the COVID-19 vaccine at the same time as the rest of the population, in line with the age group roll out.
Prior to this, they had recommended a risk-based approach and said that pregnant people with high risk medical conditions — and met the definition of being “clinically extremely vulnerable” — should consider having a COVID-19 vaccine in pregnancy. This was because they viewed that their underlying condition may put them at a higher risk of experiencing serious complications of COVID-19.
However, the guidance regarding vaccination against COVID-10 during pregnancy has changed as new research and evidence has emerged.
It has been indicated that it is preferable for pregnant people in the UK to be offered the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines where available, as there is more safety data available on these vaccines in pregnancy. Continue reading Pregnancy and COVID-19 vaccines