Doctors dismissed rumours spreading online that suggest having a Covid-19 vaccine could affect fertility as nonsense.
The false claims are widely seen by experts as the latest round of misinformation from anti-vaxxers, who believe unfounded suggestions that vaccinations cause harm.
Despite being untrue, such rumours are blamed in part for "vaccine hesitancy" – a reluctance to be vaccinated – which could hamper efforts to control the pandemic.
Prof Paul Hunter, an infectious diseases specialist and professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia in the UK, said "somebody is putting out a lie" suggesting vaccination reduces fertility.
It's anti-vaxxers spreading more lies and misinformation ... It's nonsense and it should be treated as nonsense
“I cannot see how it would feasibly do that, knowing how these vaccines work,” he said.
"If people are going to make these statements, they have to produce hard evidence, otherwise we have to take them as made up.
"It's anti-vaxxers spreading more lies and misinformation ... it's nonsense and it should be treated as nonsense."
Writing in The New York Times this week, Prof Akiko Iwasaki, a professor of immunobiology at Yale School of Medicine, and one of her postgraduate students, Alice Lu-Culligan, branded a claim that the vaccine generates antibodies that affect a protein in the placenta as "completely false".
One suggestion, they said, is that the protein in question, syncytin-1, is similar to the coronavirus spike protein, leading to the idea that antibodies produced by vaccination could harm a developing child.
But in laboratory tests the researchers found no reaction between antibodies collected from women with Covid-19 and syncytin-1, nor did they identify any significant similarities between this protein and the coronavirus spike protein.
They also pointed out that there had been no reports of infertility in women who have recovered after being infected with the coronavirus.
Dr Andrew Freedman, an infectious diseases specialist at Cardiff University in the UK, said there were "so many false rumours around", and dismissed suggestions that vaccination harmed fertility.
"There's no evidence and there's no conceivable mechanism I can think of why that would be the case," he said.
"I presume it comes from anti-vaxxers with no evidence at all."
Similarly, there is no evidence that vaccination causes male infertility, and a study being conducted by the University of Miami that analyses the effect of an mRNA Covid-19 vaccine is expected to confirm this.
Researchers behind that study have, however, found that the virus can harm sperm production and that it can linger inside the testes, raising the prospect – as yet unconfirmed – that infection could potentially affect male fertility.
While there is no evidence Covid-19 vaccines harm fertility, there is caution about giving the jabs to pregnant women because – as is normal practice – they were not included in clinical trials.
Typically, it is recommended that pregnant women are not given vaccines made from live attenuated pathogens (which can replicate but not lead to disease), because there are concerns the pathogen could multiply in the foetus. However, none of the Covid-19 vaccines being administered contain live attenuated pathogens, so the risk of harm from vaccination during pregnancy is thought to be very low.
Tests on animals during pregnancy have not highlighted potential problems with coronavirus vaccines – another indication that there are unlikely to be issues if pregnant women are vaccinated.
Regulators suggest pregnant women be vaccinated only if she has specific medical conditions, such as heart disease, chronic kidney disease, or severe respiratory conditions, that put her at greater risk should she become infected with Covid-19.
Officials suggest that women who are at greater risk of catching the coronavirus, perhaps because of their work, may want to discuss getting vaccinated.
"In general terms, a woman who's pregnant [and who works] in an office or something like that, you probably wouldn't give them a vaccine, but if it was a pregnant nurse who works in a Covid ward, probably, after discussing it with the nurse herself, you would decide to go ahead with it," Prof Hunter said.
Pregnant women are more at risk of severe symptoms if infected, leading some countries, such as Israel, to include them in a vaccine programme.
Compared with other women of the same age, pregnant women with Covid-19 are more likely to be admitted to an intensive care unit, to be put on a ventilator and to die, although the risks are not thought to be as great as those faced by, for example, the elderly.
In other advice from national regulators, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in the US said a pregnancy test before being given a coronavirus vaccination is not necessary, and it is safe to become pregnant after being inoculated.
Meanwhile, there are no known risks from giving coronavirus vaccines to breastfeeding women, according to the UK's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, although officials stress there is limited data.
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MATCH INFO
What: 2006 World Cup quarter-final
When: July 1
Where: Gelsenkirchen Stadium, Gelsenkirchen, Germany
Result:
England 0 Portugal 0
(Portugal win 3-1 on penalties)
Groom and Two Brides
Director: Elie Semaan
Starring: Abdullah Boushehri, Laila Abdallah, Lulwa Almulla
Rating: 3/5
Company profile
Date started: Founded in May 2017 and operational since April 2018
Founders: co-founder and chief executive, Doaa Aref; Dr Rasha Rady, co-founder and chief operating officer.
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: Health-tech
Size: 22 employees
Funding: Seed funding
Investors: Flat6labs, 500 Falcons, three angel investors
EA Sports FC 26
Publisher: EA Sports
Consoles: PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series X/S
Rating: 3/5
GAC GS8 Specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 248hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.1L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh149,900
Ten10 Cricket League
Venue and schedule Sharjah Cricket Stadium, December 14 to 17
Teams
Maratha Arabians Leading player: Virender Sehwag; Top picks: Mohammed Amir, Imad Wasim; UAE players: Shaiman Anwar, Zahoor Khan
Bengal Lions Leading player: Sarfraz Ahmed; Top picks: Sunil Narine, Mustafizur Rahman; UAE players: Mohammed Naveed, Rameez Shahzad
Kerala Kings Leading player: Eoin Morgan; Top picks: Kieron Pollard, Sohail Tanvir; UAE players: Rohan Mustafa, Imran Haider
Pakhtoons Leading player: Shahid Afridi; Top picks: Fakhar Zaman, Tamim Iqbal; UAE players: Amjad Javed, Saqlain Haider
Punjabi Legends Leading player: Shoaib Malik; Top picks: Hasan Ali, Chris Jordan; UAE players: Ghulam Shabber, Shareef Asadullah
Team Sri Lanka Cricket Will be made up of Colombo players who won island’s domestic limited-overs competition
Quick pearls of wisdom
Focus on gratitude: And do so deeply, he says. “Think of one to three things a day that you’re grateful for. It needs to be specific, too, don’t just say ‘air.’ Really think about it. If you’re grateful for, say, what your parents have done for you, that will motivate you to do more for the world.”
Know how to fight: Shetty married his wife, Radhi, three years ago (he met her in a meditation class before he went off and became a monk). He says they’ve had to learn to respect each other’s “fighting styles” – he’s a talk it-out-immediately person, while she needs space to think. “When you’re having an argument, remember, it’s not you against each other. It’s both of you against the problem. When you win, they lose. If you’re on a team you have to win together.”
Timeline
1947
Ferrari’s road-car company is formed and its first badged car, the 125 S, rolls off the assembly line
1962
250 GTO is unveiled
1969
Fiat becomes a Ferrari shareholder, acquiring 50 per cent of the company
1972
The Fiorano circuit, Ferrari’s racetrack for development and testing, opens
1976
First automatic Ferrari, the 400 Automatic, is made
1987
F40 launched
1988
Enzo Ferrari dies; Fiat expands its stake in the company to 90 per cent
2002
The Enzo model is announced
2010
Ferrari World opens in Abu Dhabi
2011
First four-wheel drive Ferrari, the FF, is unveiled
2013
LaFerrari, the first Ferrari hybrid, arrives
2014
Fiat Chrysler announces the split of Ferrari from the parent company
2015
Ferrari launches on Wall Street
2017
812 Superfast unveiled; Ferrari celebrates its 70th anniversary
Other ways to buy used products in the UAE
UAE insurance firm Al Wathba National Insurance Company (AWNIC) last year launched an e-commerce website with a facility enabling users to buy car wrecks.
Bidders and potential buyers register on the online salvage car auction portal to view vehicles, review condition reports, or arrange physical surveys, and then start bidding for motors they plan to restore or harvest for parts.
Physical salvage car auctions are a common method for insurers around the world to move on heavily damaged vehicles, but AWNIC is one of the few UAE insurers to offer such services online.
For cars and less sizeable items such as bicycles and furniture, Dubizzle is arguably the best-known marketplace for pre-loved.
Founded in 2005, in recent years it has been joined by a plethora of Facebook community pages for shifting used goods, including Abu Dhabi Marketplace, Flea Market UAE and Arabian Ranches Souq Market while sites such as The Luxury Closet and Riot deal largely in second-hand fashion.
At the high-end of the pre-used spectrum, resellers such as Timepiece360.ae, WatchBox Middle East and Watches Market Dubai deal in authenticated second-hand luxury timepieces from brands such as Rolex, Hublot and Tag Heuer, with a warranty.
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
Where to Find Me by Alba Arikha
Alma Books
Suggested picnic spots
Abu Dhabi
Umm Al Emarat Park
Yas Gateway Park
Delma Park
Al Bateen beach
Saadiyaat beach
The Corniche
Zayed Sports City
Dubai
Kite Beach
Zabeel Park
Al Nahda Pond Park
Mushrif Park
Safa Park
Al Mamzar Beach Park
Al Qudrah Lakes
Key findings of Jenkins report
- Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al Banna, "accepted the political utility of violence"
- Views of key Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, Sayyid Qutb, have “consistently been understood” as permitting “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” and “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
- Muslim Brotherhood at all levels has repeatedly defended Hamas attacks against Israel, including the use of suicide bombers and the killing of civilians.
- Laying out the report in the House of Commons, David Cameron told MPs: "The main findings of the review support the conclusion that membership of, association with, or influence by the Muslim Brotherhood should be considered as a possible indicator of extremism."
Autumn international scores
Saturday, November 24
Italy 3-66 New Zealand
Scotland 14-9 Argentina
England 37-18 Australia
Heather, the Totality
Matthew Weiner,
Canongate
Naga
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%C2%A0%3C%2Fstrong%3EMeshal%20Al%20Jaser%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%C2%A0%3C%2Fstrong%3EAdwa%20Bader%2C%20Yazeed%20Almajyul%2C%20Khalid%20Bin%20Shaddad%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E4%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Duminy's Test career in numbers
Tests 46; Runs 2,103; Best 166; Average 32.85; 100s 6; 50s 8; Wickets 42; Best 4-47
