Get the Facts on the Vax: Debunking claims about the COVID-19 vaccines – WLWT Cincinnati

At a time when misinformation is abundant, it can be difficult to navigate what is true and what is false. False claims about the COVID-19 vaccines, testing and masks are everywhere from social media postings to public comment during community meetings and hearings at the statehouse."Just be careful where you're getting your information from," said Dr. Stephen Blatt, medical director for Infectious Diseases for TriHealth. Infectious diseases have been his specialty for approximately 35 years. WLWT took several comments from recent hearings we've covered to Blatt, to sort out fact from fiction. A father recently made a claim during a school board meeting that "the CDC itself has put out that these PCR tests cannot tell the difference between influenza and COVID.""That's just not true. The PCR tests are highly sensitive and highly specific. You can tell the difference between COVID and influenza by using a PCR test," Blatt said. "The PCR tests are really the best way to tell if a person has flu or if the person has COVID."During a recent hearing at the Ohio Statehouse, a man said, "The mRNA vaccines have never been on market anywhere in the world. mRNA vaccines have been tested in humans before for at least four infectious diseases: rabbies, influenza, cytomegalovirus and Zika. So all of a sudden, we're supposed to roll up our sleeves to take a vaccine that has never been on market before, just tested on humans?" Blatt said this statement is accurate. "They were testing the mRNA vaccines in a number of different viral infections, and they were not urgently testing them because those infections were not causing a pandemic. When COVID came around and a pandemic was obvious, we needed a vaccine quickly to try to shut down transmission of COVID," he said. "They were undergoing clinical trials, but they had not been -- requested to be FDA approved yet, because those trials were still enrolling patients."A lot of confusion surrounds VAERS, the vaccine adverse event reporting system that anyone can utilize to self-report symptoms after being vaccinated."What the VAERS system does is anybody who has what they think is a side effect from the vaccine can fill out a form or do it online and get their information uploaded into the VAERS system. They also monitor patients who have passed away following a vaccine or had any other significant disability following a vaccine," Blatt said. "So the VAERS system, even though those numbers are accurate, it doesn't tell you that they died from the vaccine. It just tells you that they died. They probably died of heart attacks, strokes, cancer, all sorts of things completely unrelated to the vaccines."The VAERS database currently shows thousands of deaths have been reported in people who received the COVID-19 vaccine."If you got the Gardasil vaccine and got in your car to drive home and died in a car accident, it gets reported that you died after the Gardasil vaccine. It's not from the vaccine. It was from the car accident. The same goes for the COVID vaccine. Anybody who passes away in the months following COVID vaccine gets reported to the VAERS database," Blatt said. During a recent public comment period at the Ohio Statehouse, a representative asked a medical professional the following: "I can't imagine seeing children die in a hospital. It has to be gut-wrenching. I can't even imagine, especially if it was my own child. But on the other hand, isn't it just as important for us to be aware of the fact that taking the vaccine has killed children as well?"I'm not aware of any mortality in children who have gotten the vaccine," Blatt said. "There certainly have been cases of children who died from the disease itself."An August report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention elaborates. It reads that 8.9 million 12-17 years olds have received Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine so far. Of the 8.9 million, 14 deaths have been reported. Each is being investigated by CDC physicians. Two have already been ruled suicide and six others have a listed cause of death, varying medical issues. The remaining six list an unknown or pending cause of death.

At a time when misinformation is abundant, it can be difficult to navigate what is true and what is false.

False claims about the COVID-19 vaccines, testing and masks are everywhere from social media postings to public comment during community meetings and hearings at the statehouse.

"Just be careful where you're getting your information from," said Dr. Stephen Blatt, medical director for Infectious Diseases for TriHealth. Infectious diseases have been his specialty for approximately 35 years. WLWT took several comments from recent hearings we've covered to Blatt, to sort out fact from fiction.

A father recently made a claim during a school board meeting that "the CDC itself has put out that these PCR tests cannot tell the difference between influenza and COVID."

"That's just not true. The PCR tests are highly sensitive and highly specific. You can tell the difference between COVID and influenza by using a PCR test," Blatt said. "The PCR tests are really the best way to tell if a person has flu or if the person has COVID."

During a recent hearing at the Ohio Statehouse, a man said, "The mRNA vaccines have never been on market anywhere in the world. mRNA vaccines have been tested in humans before for at least four infectious diseases: rabbies, influenza, cytomegalovirus and Zika. So all of a sudden, we're supposed to roll up our sleeves to take a vaccine that has never been on market before, just tested on humans?"

Blatt said this statement is accurate.

"They were testing the mRNA vaccines in a number of different viral infections, and they were not urgently testing them because those infections were not causing a pandemic. When COVID came around and a pandemic was obvious, we needed a vaccine quickly to try to shut down transmission of COVID," he said. "They were undergoing clinical trials, but they had not been -- requested to be FDA approved yet, because those trials were still enrolling patients."

A lot of confusion surrounds VAERS, the vaccine adverse event reporting system that anyone can utilize to self-report symptoms after being vaccinated.

"What the VAERS system does is anybody who has what they think is a side effect from the vaccine can fill out a form or do it online and get their information uploaded into the VAERS system. They also monitor patients who have passed away following a vaccine or had any other significant disability following a vaccine," Blatt said. "So the VAERS system, even though those numbers are accurate, it doesn't tell you that they died from the vaccine. It just tells you that they died. They probably died of heart attacks, strokes, cancer, all sorts of things completely unrelated to the vaccines."

The VAERS database currently shows thousands of deaths have been reported in people who received the COVID-19 vaccine.

"If you got the Gardasil vaccine and got in your car to drive home and died in a car accident, it gets reported that you died after the Gardasil vaccine. It's not from the vaccine. It was from the car accident. The same goes for the COVID vaccine. Anybody who passes away in the months following COVID vaccine gets reported to the VAERS database," Blatt said.

During a recent public comment period at the Ohio Statehouse, a representative asked a medical professional the following: "I can't imagine seeing children die in a hospital. It has to be gut-wrenching. I can't even imagine, especially if it was my own child. But on the other hand, isn't it just as important for us to be aware of the fact that taking the vaccine has killed children as well?

"I'm not aware of any mortality in children who have gotten the vaccine," Blatt said. "There certainly have been cases of children who died from the disease itself."

An August report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention elaborates. It reads that 8.9 million 12-17 years olds have received Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine so far. Of the 8.9 million, 14 deaths have been reported. Each is being investigated by CDC physicians. Two have already been ruled suicide and six others have a listed cause of death, varying medical issues. The remaining six list an unknown or pending cause of death.

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Get the Facts on the Vax: Debunking claims about the COVID-19 vaccines - WLWT Cincinnati