Fauci: recent paper doesn’t suggest COVID vaccines ineffective
CLAIM: Dr. Anthony Fauci, in a recent science paper, admits that COVID-19 vaccines don’t work.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: FALSE. The scientific journal article doesn’t say the vaccines don’t work. The article’s authors say their paper acknowledges current vaccines for respiratory viruses don’t prevent all infections, but that they do prevent the most serious symptoms. Fauci and another coauthor said the article makes the case for exploring new approaches to make respiratory virus vaccines more effective.
THE FACTS: Social media users are claiming Fauci, who stepped down last year as chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden after leading the nation’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, has acknowledged the COVID shot isn’t effective.
They point to an article published Jan. 11 in the scientific journal Cell Host & Microbe that’s titled: “Rethinking next-generation vaccines for coronaviruses, influenzaviruses, and other respiratory viruses.”
The article was written by Fauci and two top officials at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases: Jeffery Taubenberger, deputy chief of its infectious disease lab, and David Morens, a senior advisor to the agency’s director.
Many of the social media posts include a screenshot of an article from a website known to push anti-vaccine conspiracies.
“Dr. Anthony Fauci now admits the mRNA Covid vaccines hardly work and might not be approvable,” the story headline reads.
“Sounds familiar,” quipped an Instagram user who shared the screenshot in a post that has been liked more than 1,200 times as of Friday.
But the paper’s authors argue that the social media posts twist their words.
“The article DOES NOT say these vaccines don’t work, just that they don’t work as well as we want them and need them to work,” Morens wrote in an email Friday.
In their paper, the authors acknowledge that current vaccines for the flu, COVID and other respiratory viruses aren’t effective in protecting against any and all illness over a person’s entire life, whereas vaccines for other respiratory illnesses such as measles, mumps, and rubella effectively confer lifetime immunity.
They then suggest exploring new approaches to respiratory virus vaccines. That includes, among other things, utilizing a “nasal spray or even a lung spray; trying different vaccine schedules and repeat doses; seeing if there is a way to boost the innate immune system,” according to Morens.
“The only thing new in this paper is the tying together of well known scientific and public health knowledge into a bigger picture of challenges to development of new vaccines,” he wrote. “It asks, in essence, OK, these vaccines aren’t perfect, so what are some of the things we might try to do to improve them?”
Fauci, in a separate email, stressed the COVID-19 vaccine has proven effective in preventing the severest symptoms that could lead to hospitalization and death.
“That is the life-saving aspect of the vaccine,” he wrote. “Point in question: I got infected even though I was vaccinated and boosted, but I had a very mild infection. Given my age, if I had not been vaccinated, the chances are that I might have gotten severely ill.”
Juliet Morrison, a microbiology professor at the University of California, Riverside, agreed that the social media posts are misleading.
“There is no ‘bombshell’ here,” she wrote in an email, referencing how some online are characterizing the piece. “The paper is saying that the current approach doesn’t work as well as it could, so we need to explore new approaches.”
Megan Ranney, deputy dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health, added that credible scientific research backs up the paper’s premise.
“That claim is hogwash,” she wrote in an email. “The data is clear (and the paper is clear) that Covid vaccines have significantly decreased severe disease and hospitalization, and that they decrease (but do not eliminate) infection and transmission.”
___
This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.
FURTHER KNOWLEDGE SHOULD YOU CARE TO READ.
The ‘Fauci Effect’: Reducing COVID-19 misconceptions and vaccine hesitancy using an authentic multimodal intervention
@Elisbch It would be interesting to know how many anti-fauci/trumper people will read this.
Another FACT: Trump's entire administration secretly received the Covid vaccination AFTER telling the citizens it was all a lie! In fact, Fauci's research is actually what saved Trump when he caught COVID. Think about that next time someone says it wasn't real.
Another thing to know is scientists work is peer reviewed. In Fauci's case, by the world. WHO here has had their work reviewed by the world???
Last... NO ONE EVER said COVID vaccines prevented anyone from getting COVID. I don't know how many times I see people claim they did. Just like the flu vaccine, it creates an immune response that lessens the effects of the virus so the person won't get hit as hard by the illness. The overreaction of the immune system is actually what kills many and the vaccine helps temper the body's response.
If you think that people can't question science and just should blindly believe what someone says is science, guess what. That's not science, that's called propaganda. Science is about questioning things and learning things, studying things, not spouting nonsense and then admitting a few years later that everything you said was all made up and nothing you said had actual scientific studies and backing into your claims, which is exactly what he did. He admitted to making up the steps with covid and the whole 6 feet apart thing and everything. All of the things he advised us to do during covid he admitted to making all of that up. And you're wrong, dude. Fauci lied to Congress which is on record that he did. He claimed he didn't do any gain of function research all while then contradicting himself and saying he did. Funny how Roger Stone goes to jail for lying to Congress yet Fauci is granted a free pass. That man should be in prison for his horrible handling of everything and his lies. Also, he donated money to research overseas which involved feeding beagle puppies's heads to sand flies after ripping their vocal chords out, which is again, on record that he donated to that. So if you blindly just defend Fauci and are white knighting for him at this point, not only are you in a braindead cult, but you just showed me you really hate puppies and dogs. Science changing every 5 seconds every time Fauci farts is not science, he's just flip flopping to adjust to whatever current stupid message he was aspousing. Man's a proven liar and should be in jail. He also killed people with his horrible advice with handling HIV in the 80s, so this was not his first rodeo.
You defend as if you know him. That position is not rational. I suspect your passion to defend him is really about your passion to defend your position about the vaccine you likely took. You don't want to even consider you drank the kool-aid. You can't think critically.
The evidence is out there and easy to find. The testimonials are out there, the reports are out there. Not to mention he was demonstrably wrong and has had to back peddle on all his B.S. It's public record. He did it right in front of you.
Every thiing Fauci said was based on the facts at the time. When Fauci said something different from an earlier statement, the change was fact driven. Fauci has always been fact based and fact driven.
Surprised you could understand his muffled lies through his double mask.
And lets hope you have all learnt your lesson and maybe not jump onboard with mandatory injections and segregation next time the scientists are 100% about "the science".
