MTG Asks If COVID Vaccines Are Linked with Fetal Demise. Here's the Science

Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has once again shared her anti-vaccine sentiments, tweeting out a spurious link between fetal demise and the vaccine.

"Is there is a correlation between fetal demise and covid vaccines?" she tweeted, sharing a tweet from user @kacdnp91, containing a clip from The Highwire. The Highwire is a media platform run by long-time anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist Del Bigtree. In the clip, a woman who identifies herself as a nurse claims that fetal demises have increased since the vaccine rolled out. She goes on to say that many early births or cases of fetal demise are in women who have recently had the vaccine.

"I can attest to this truth. One of my best friends is a Neonatal NP and the [increased] amount of infants on anticoagulant therapy is alarming. The census in our local Level 1 trauma center is [decreasing] not [increasing] though. Fetal demise is increasing dramatically," said the tweet by user @kacdnp91.

Ever since COVID-19 first appeared, the internet has been awash with theories and fears about potential dangers involved in treatments, especially vaccines.

There are a number of people who do not believe that the COVID vaccines—or vaccines of any kind—are safe, despite the enormous evidence to the contrary. Much of the anti-vaccine movement began as a result of a 1998 paper published by Andrew Wakefield that suggested that the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine caused autism and other developmental issues in children.

Despite the fact that this paper was discredited and pulled from the journal, and Wakefield was found fraudulent, having picked and chosen data that suited their case and falsified facts, the idea that vaccines are dangerous and harmful, especially to children, has stuck around.

"I do not know of any scientific study that confirms the association between fetal demise and COVID vaccines. On the other hand, some studies confirm the adverse effects of COVID-19 for pregnant and unvaccinated women," Saifuddin Ahmed, an assistant professor of communication and information and expert in the media and its effect on public opinion in the science and tech sphere at Nanyang Technological University, told Newsweek.

Fetal demise, also known as fetal death, is the spontaneous death of a fetus at any time during pregnancy. Later on in the pregnancy, these are often called stillbirths.

One study in the British Medical Journal last year tested for any link between fetal development and COVID-19 vaccination, and found that "vaccination against COVID-19 during pregnancy is not associated with a higher risk of preterm birth, small for gestational age at birth, or stillbirth."

"Moreover, a study published in Frontiers in Psychology found no strong link of unknown AEFI [adverse events following immunization] associated with COVID-19 vaccination in pregnant women."

With no scientific evidence to support these claims, fetal death being a result of the COVID-19 vaccine may just be another unproven vaccine scaremongering tactic. The danger to pregnant women of catching the COVID-19 virus means that the vaccine, which lessens the impact of the virus on the body, may actually mitigate the negative effects of the virus.

Johnathan Reiner, professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington School of Medicine and Health Sciences, told Greene as much in a quote tweet.

"Thanks for your question congresswoman. There's no data to suggest increased fetal demise after COVID vaccination, but there's ample data showing increased maternal death caused by COVID infection," he said.

"There's no scientific evidence establishing the life-threatening adverse outcomes often propagated by some politicians and general anti-vaxxers. If anything, such claims (such as by MGT) are highly dangerous for public health," Ahmed said.

In fact, touting anti-vaccine sentiments may in itself be harmful for children.

"The anti-vax movement is exceptionally harmful to children. Usually, children do not have the sense of agency or ability to act independently and exercise choices such as vaccination," Ahmed said. "Their guardians and parents are responsible for vaccination. As such, any misinformation or rumor that can influence this population affects not only them but is also detrimental to their kids."

Vaccines are incredibly important, as not only can they save the vaccinated child's life from a preventable illness, a vaccinated population makes it much harder for immunocompromised people to become exposed to the disease.

"While we have evidence to support that children are less likely to experience severe illness from COVID-19, parents should still make wiser decisions by considering scientific evidence and government regulations," Ahmed said. "They should not be influenced by misinformation. The responsibility also lies with politicians and public representatives, who should do better and not push fabricated and non-scientific anti-vax claims."

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Del Bigtree