A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts:
Video spreads false claim that vaccine booster shots increase risk of death
CLAIM: People who have received COVID-19 vaccine booster shots are at a greater risk of dying from the virus.
THE FACTS: Research shows the opposite – booster shots reduce the risk of hospitalization and death, experts said. Footage circulating widely on social media recently shows a doctor telling Tennessee lawmakers that people who get vaccine booster shots are at a higher risk of death from the coronavirus. In the clip, Dr. Richard Urso testifies on March 1 at the House Health Subcommittee of the Tennessee General Assembly on a bill that would ban private businesses and public agencies from enacting rules that treat people considered to have natural immunity from COVID-19 differently from those who are vaccinated. “If you look at the studies in England, in Scotland, and in northern countries in Europe where they get real data, that there, actually, the triple vaccinated are the most likely to die,” said Urso, a Houston-based ophthalmologist. The video of Urso’s testimony has spread across social media platforms. But the claim is false. No credible evidence has been presented showing that people who get COVID-19 vaccine booster shots are more likely to die, medical and immunology experts told the AP. “There’s really nothing that supports that assertion,” said Francesca Torriani, a professor of clinical medicine at the University of California, San Diego. “It has to be categorized as misinformation.” Ross Kedl, a professor of immunology and biology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, said the data shows the “exact opposite” of Urso’s claim. Kedl cited a March 2022 article in the New England Journal of Medicine that found that booster doses “substantially increased protection” against the omicron variant. “I’ve never seen anything that shows an increased risk of mortality for individuals with the third dose and repeated doses to the vaccines,” said Robert Carpenter, a clinical associate professor at Texas A&M University College of Medicine. “That’s completely false based upon all of the data that is available, everything that I’ve seen both in the U.S. and outside it from reputable sources.” Carpenter cited data published in January 2022 by the U.K. Health Security Agency that determined booster shots significantly reduce the risk of death caused by the omicron coronavirus variant. He also pointed to a December 2021 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine that found that people who received a booster shot had “90% lower mortality” due to COVID-19 than those who did not get a booster. Urso did not respond to the AP’s requests for comment.