"Vaccine shedding:" Unpacking the newest anti-vax hoax
Anti-vax communities have been circulating new pieces of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation called “vaccine shedding” on social media.
The inventors of this hoax claim that people who have been recently vaccinated can shed mRNA or spike proteins – inadvertently causing serious health effects in other people.
Vaccines that use mRNA (or messenger RNA) serves as a roadmap for your cells: They give your cells instructions on how to make the spike protein found on the surface of COVID-19. Essentially, spike proteins work as shapeshifting “lock picks” that aid in making antibodies and building immune response.
According to gynaecologist Dr Jen Gunter, of The Vajenda , neither the mRNA vaccine nor spike proteins can shed from the body. Her research has worked to debunk claims that COVID-19 vaccines have caused infertility and menstruation problems – often amplified by anti-vax activists as a danger of getting vaccinated.
One of the top narratives circulating social media is anecdotal claims of menstrual irregularities following the COVID-19 vaccine. Similarly, false claims that just “being around” a recently vaccinated person had caused fertility and menstrual issues.
These false narratives, that vaccinated people can “shed” spike proteins or mRNA and make people sick are continuing to threaten vaccine efforts across the country. Especially at a time when vaccine hesitancy is on the rise, COVID-19 vaccine misinformation will inevitably cause further harm.
There have been three real-world repercussions of this vaccine conspiracy theory: First, a Miami private school told employees to stay home if they have recently been vaccinated – repeating the false claim that vaccine shedding causes menstrual irregularities. Second, Brothers Butcher Shoppe in Canada asked recently vaccinated customers to stick to curb-side pickup. Finally, a tanning salon, also in Canada, told clients to stay home for a minimum of three weeks before returning to the business.
As always, I wanted to conduct my own investigation on Twitter to see if “vaccine shedding” was still being widely discussed. Using their advanced search options, I conducted research from May 1 to May 12, 2021, for the keywords “vaccine shedding” or “vaccine” and “shedding.”
This search produced hundreds of pieces of content – ranging from misinformation and conspiracy theories to experts working to debunk the shedding myth.
The top four posts racked up thousands of likes with hundreds of retweets. Some of the posts contained videos of people who had been impacted by vaccine shedding which amassed over 1,000 views.
Other posts contained external links to fake news websites, like Natural News, claiming that vaccine shedding can be cured by ingesting pine needles prepared in an espresso machine. The pine needle conspiracy theory was retweeted 16 times within the last five hours on Twitter.
Although Twitter is not representative of all conversations occurring on the internet about “vaccine shedding,” it has allowed me to record these posts in real-time. Now, efforts must be made to mitigate the spread of this hoax so more people are not affected.