| schema:text
| - A viral claim that Pfizer recently released a list showing over 40 side effects of its COVID-19 vaccine is making rounds online.
The claim originated from a post on X (formerly Twitter) by a user @pshegs, who noted that the list was copied from an unnamed source.
READ: False claim about mRNA vaccines circulates on WhatsApp
The post reads:
Copied: PFIZER JUST RELEASED IT’S LIST OF SIDE EFFECTS OF ITS “COVID-19 VACCINE”…….and the list of some side effects of the Pfizer-Biontech Covid-19 Vaccine. TAKE-HEED! Blood thrombosis. Acute kidney injury, Acute flaccid myelitis, Positive antisperm antibodies, Brainstem embolism, Brainstem thrombosis, Cardiac arrest (hundreds of cases), Heart failure, Cardiac ventricular thrombosis, Cardiogenic shock, Central nervous system vasculitis, Neonatal death, Deep vein thrombosis, Brainstem encephalitis, Hemorrhagic encephalitis, Frontal lobe epilepsy, Foaming at the mouth, Epileptic psychosis, Facial paralysis, Fetal distress syndrome, Gastrointestinal amyloidosis, Generalized tonic-clonic seizure, Hashimoto’s encephalopathy, Hepatic vascular thrombosis, Herpes zoster reactivation, Hepatitis Immune-mediated, Interstitial lung disease, Jugular vein embolism, Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy, Liver damage, Low birth weight, Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, Myocarditis, Neonatal seizure, Pancreatitis, Pneumonia, Stillbirth, Tachycardia, Temporal lobe epilepsy, Testicular autoimmunity, Thrombotic stroke, Type 1 diabetes mellitus, Neonatal venous thrombosis, Vertebral artery thrombosis, Pericarditis, Sudden death.” We just thought you’d like to know, because one thing people will never be able to say is, “I didn’t know” WE TOLD YOU!
The post has garnered over 9,000 views with more than 200 reposts and over 200 likes as of February 9, 2025.
Pfizer, a leading global pharmaceutical company, developed the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in collaboration with the German biotechnology firm BioNTech.
Launched in December 2020, this mRNA-based vaccine was one of the first to receive emergency use authorization from regulatory agencies worldwide. It has played a pivotal role in reducing severe illness, hospitalizations, and deaths related to COVID-19, following extensive clinical trials that demonstrated its safety and efficacy. The vaccine continues to be a central component of global public health strategies to combat the pandemic.
CLAIM
Pfizer releases new list of its COVID-19 vaccine side effects in 2025.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is FALSE!
A Google search using the keywords “Pfizer Covid 19 vaccine side effects” showed that the list of so-called side effects originates from a Pfizer document from 2021 that was made public in 2022.
Pfizer submitted the document to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2021, detailing adverse events reported during the first three months following the emergency use authorization of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in December 2020.
It is very important to note the distinction between “adverse events” and “side effects.”
According to numerous health journals, adverse events refer to any health issues reported after vaccination; however, they are not necessarily caused by the vaccine itself. A side effect, by contrast, is a complication directly attributable to the vaccine.
The document clearly states in its disclaimer that the reported adverse events “do not necessarily indicate that a particular AE (adverse event) was caused by the drug; rather, the event may be due to an underlying disease or some other factor(s).”
The data in the report were aggregated from multiple international vaccine safety databases, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) and the United Kingdom’s Yellow Card system.
ALSO READ: How Chris Oyakhilome spreads malaria vaccine conspiracy theories – Report
Another report by Reuters clarified that these adverse events were collected from such national reporting systems.
Additionally, this claim regarding the list of side effects of the Pfizer covid-19 vaccine has been scrutinized and debunked by reputable organizations around the world such as Politifact, Reuters and Science Feedback before it reached Nigerian audience recently.
THE VERDICT
Seasoned fact-checker and researcher Fatimah Quadri has written numerous fact-checks, explainers, and media literacy pieces for The FactCheckHub in an effort to combat information disorder. She can be reached at sunmibola_q on X or [email protected].
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)