Office of Medical Student Research, Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences, Tulsa, OK, USA.
Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Ascension Oklahoma St. John Medical Center, Tulsa, OK, USA.
J Osteopath Med. 2021 Apr 12;121(6):583-587. doi: 10.1515/jom-2021-0059.
On December 1, 2020, Drs. Wolfgang Wodarg and Micheal Yeadon petitioned to withhold emergency use authorization of the BNT162b2 messenger ribonucleic acid vaccine for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) manufactured by BioNTech and Pfizer, raising concern for female infertility risks but acknowledging the lack of evidence. The European Medicines Agency and the US Food and Drug Administration ultimately issued emergency use authorizations, but misinformation claiming that COVID-19 vaccines cause female infertility began circulating on social media, potentially influencing public perception and medical decision making among pregnant patients or those seeking to become pregnant.
To determine the potential influence misinformation may have had on public interest in infertility related topics, as analyzed through internet search statistics in the US.
The Google Trends tool was used to analyze results for the search terms "infertility," "infertility AND vaccine," and "infertility AND COVID vaccine" in the US from February 4, 2020 to February 3, 2021. We applied autoregressive integrated moving average models to forecast expected values, comparing them with actual observed values.
At peak interest (100), the forecasted relative search volumes interest for the search terms "infertility," "infertility AND vaccine," and "infertility AND COVID vaccine" were 45.47 (95% CI, 33.27-57.66; p<0.001), 0.88 (95% CI, 2.87-4.63; p<0.001), and 0.29 (95% CI, -2.25-2.82; p<0.001). The actual relative search volumes at peak searching represented 119.9, 11,251, and 34,900% increases, respectively, when compared with forecasted values.
COVID-19 vaccine misinformation corresponded with increased internet searches for topics related to infertility in the US. Dispelling misinformation and informing patients about the risks and benefits of COVID-19 vaccination may prevent unnecessary vaccine hesitancy or refusal, contributing to successful vaccination efforts.
2020 年 12 月 1 日，Wolfgang Wodarg 博士和 Micheal Yeadon 博士请求搁置辉瑞/BioNTech 生产的用于治疗 2019 年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）的 BNT162b2 信使核糖核酸疫苗的紧急使用授权，这引发了对女性不孕风险的担忧，但也承认缺乏证据。欧洲药品管理局和美国食品药品监督管理局最终发布了紧急使用授权，但有关 COVID-19 疫苗导致女性不孕的错误信息开始在社交媒体上传播，这可能会影响孕妇或寻求怀孕的患者的公众认知和医疗决策。
通过分析美国互联网搜索统计数据，确定错误信息可能对公众对与不孕相关话题的兴趣产生的潜在影响。
使用谷歌趋势工具分析了 2020 年 2 月 4 日至 2021 年 2 月 3 日期间美国“fertility”“fertility AND vaccine”和“fertility AND COVID vaccine”这三个搜索词的搜索结果。我们应用自回归综合移动平均模型来预测预期值，并将其与实际观测值进行比较。
在兴趣峰值（100）时，“fertility”“fertility AND vaccine”和“fertility AND COVID vaccine”这三个搜索词的预测相对搜索量分别为 45.47（95%置信区间，33.27-57.66；p<0.001）、0.88（95%置信区间，2.87-4.63；p<0.001）和 0.29（95%置信区间，-2.25-2.82；p<0.001）。与预测值相比，实际搜索峰值时的相对搜索量分别增加了 119.9、11251 和 34900%。
COVID-19 疫苗错误信息与美国与不孕相关的话题互联网搜索量增加相对应。消除错误信息并告知患者 COVID-19 疫苗的风险和益处，可能有助于防止不必要的疫苗犹豫或拒绝，从而为成功的疫苗接种工作做出贡献。
