WASHINGTON — Nearly half of the United States population has gotten at least one dose of the vaccine. But, that has not stopped numerous misinformation articles from circulating online.
The latest one is an article that claims there is evidence the vaccine can lead to neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s or dementia.
A viewer sent us a story from a media outlet called “The National File.” It reports on a new paper recently published in the medical journal Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. In the study, the researcher claims the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine can lead to neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s or dementia.
THE QUESTION
Does the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine lead to neurological diseases?
THE SOURCES
- Dr. Aditi Nerurkar, a physician from The Harvard Medical School
- Dr. Gregory Schrank, an infectious diseases expert from The University of Maryland Medical School
THE ANSWER
There is no evidence to support the claim that the COVID-19 vaccines cause neurological diseases.
WHAT WE FOUND
“This isn't true science,” Dr. Nerurkar said. “There's no data. This is just a lot of speculation and opinion.”
We have a link to the study here, but our experts said it has many issues. The biggest issue is it doesn’t reveal how they did their research.
“So we have no idea what the actual methods were to get to these conclusions,” Dr. Nerurkar said. “And in many ways, this is an opinion piece. This is what a person who wrote the study thinks.”
Secondly, Dr. Nerurkar said it's written by an immunologist with a history of opposing vaccines.
“This particular author has written in the past about how vaccines cause diabetes, which is also a false claim,” she explained.
Finally, our sources said no other studies have found evidence of similar conclusions.
“There are no observed neurologic complications of any of the three FDA-authorized vaccines,” Dr. Shrank said.
Sign up for the Get Up DC newsletter: Your forecast. Your commute. Your news.
Sign up for the Capitol Breach email newsletter, delivering the latest breaking news and a roundup of the investigation into the Capitol Riots on January 6, 2021.