After months of waiting for Food and Drug Administration authorization, children are next in line to receive COVID-19 vaccines. But some on social media claim they may be better off unvaccinated.
“Children are 50 times more likely to be killed by the COVID vaccines than the virus itself,” reads a Nov. 5 Instagram post, which acquired more than 3,000 likes in one week. The post attributes the quote to “Dr. Michael Yeadon, former Pfizer VP.”
Yeadon was a chief scientific officer and vice president at Pfizer before he left in 2011 after more than 16 years at the company. Since then, he has become a source of misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccines, Reuters reported.
The claim in the Instagram post stems from something Yeadon said during a June interview with Steve Bannon, once a strategist for former President Donald Trump.
“It’s a crazy thing to vaccinate (children) with something that is actually 50 times more likely to kill them than the virus itself,” Yeadon said.
That’s false.
Clinical trial data shows the COVID-19 vaccines do not pose a risk of death to children. Public health officials say the shots can prevent serious illness, and experts say their benefits outweigh their risks.
USA TODAY reached out to Yeadon and the person who shared the Instagram post for comment.
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