Smith Tara C, Gorski David H
College of Public Health, Kent State University, Kent, OH, United States.
Michael and Marian Ilitch Department of Surgery, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, United States; Molecular Therapeutics Program, Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, Detroit, MI, United States.
Vaccine. 2024 Feb 6;42(4):924-929. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2024.01.043. Epub 2024 Jan 19.
Misinformation, disinformation, and conspiracy theories about vaccines are key drivers of vaccine hesitancy. A repeated false claim about COVID-19 vaccines is that the vaccines cause female infertility. Dating back decades, various conspiracy theories have linked vaccination programs with infertility and thus harmed vaccination programs in Africa, Asia, and Central America, particularly against polio and tetanus. In the United States, Europe, and Australia, human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccines have been falsely blamed for infertility and primary ovarian insufficiency (POI). After distribution of COVID-19 vaccines began in December 2020, almost immediately there arose conspiracy theories claiming that these vaccines cause menstrual irregularities, miscarriages, and infertility, promoted by noted antivaccine activists Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Andrew Wakefield among others. Here we will explore the history of this antivaccine narrative, how it has been promulgated in the past and repurposed to COVID-19 vaccines, and strategies to counter it.
关于疫苗的错误信息、虚假信息和阴谋论是疫苗犹豫的关键驱动因素。一个关于新冠疫苗的反复出现的错误说法是，这些疫苗会导致女性不孕。几十年来，各种阴谋论将疫苗接种计划与不孕联系起来，从而损害了非洲、亚洲和中美洲的疫苗接种计划，尤其是针对脊髓灰质炎和破伤风疫苗的接种计划。在美国、欧洲和澳大利亚，人乳头瘤病毒（HPV）疫苗曾被错误地指责会导致不孕和原发性卵巢功能不全（POI）。2020年12月开始分发新冠疫苗后，几乎立刻就出现了阴谋论，声称这些疫苗会导致月经不调、流产和不孕，著名的反疫苗活动人士小罗伯特·F·肯尼迪和安德鲁·韦克菲尔德等人都在推动这些说法。在此，我们将探讨这种反疫苗言论的历史，它过去是如何传播的以及如何被用于新冠疫苗，还有应对它的策略。
