copenlu/druid huggingface dataset:
Claim: COVID-19 vaccines cause leprosy (Social media user, 2024-01-04)
Evidence (2022-01-26): So, how ethical are these booster doses for whole country populations, including teens and young adults, while other people are still waiting to get that first dose? What does this mean for individuals in vulnerable situations, such as persons affected by leprosy, in countries with low vaccine rates? Should they now be even more patient, waiting their turn? The COVID-19 pandemic already has had a disproportionate impact on persons affected by leprosy. Many persons affected by leprosy, who are often without a safety net and living below the poverty line, have lost their jobs (Source: United Nations Human Rights Council). According to Dr Tahir Dahiru, Executive Director of the Leprosy and Tuberculosis Relief Initiative Nigeria (LTR), "many persons affected by leprosy have lost their jobs and other sources of livelihood, people were confined to their homes because of the lockdown and other restrictions". Key activities for early diagnosis and prevention of physical disabilities due to leprosy have been interrupted by the pandemic, causing a 37% reduction in the global number of newly diagnosed leprosy patients in 2020 (Source: WHO Weekly Epidemiological Record). For many, essential medicines have become unavailable due to disrupted supply channels. And finally, persons affected by leprosy have not been included in priority groups for COVID-19 vaccination and often have limited access to healthcare services, including vaccination sites (Source: United Nations Human Rights Council)
Claim: COVID-19 vaccines cause leprosy (Social media user, 2024-01-04)
Evidence (2018-03-28): Now, there is only one rBCG vaccine in clinical trials, the VPM1002 vaccine. The clinical trial evaluations are in phases II and III for tuberculosis (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03152903, NCT04351685), in phases I and II for recurrent non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02371447), and in phase III for SARS-CoV-2 infectionFootnote 4 (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04439045, NCT04387409). The VPM1002 vaccine has not been evaluated as a vaccine candidate for leprosy. The VPM1002 is a genetically modified BCG that has the urease C encoding gene replaced by the listeriolysin O encoding gene from Listeria monocytogenes [115,116,117]. Urease C neutralises phagosomes that contribute to mycobacteria survival, whereas listeriolysin O forms transmembrane β-barrel pores in the phagolysosome membrane. Therefore, VPM1002 can effectively release mycobacterial antigens into the cytosol to trigger immunogenic responses. The VPM1002 system can potentially be used and further modified as a leprosy vaccine. Now that BCG is more widely recognised as a vaccine for leprosy, this offers promise for rBCGs such as VPM1002, rBCG/85A, rBCG-SM, rBCG::PGL-b, and rBCG::PGL-1 and the tuberculosis rBCGs as leprosy vaccine candidates in clinical studies.
Claim: COVID-19 vaccines cause leprosy (Social media user, 2024-01-04)
Evidence (2023-08-04): - 32. Saraswat N, Tripathy DM, Kumar S, Awasthi P, Gopal MM. A spectrum of leprosy reactions triggered by Covid-19 vaccination: a series of four cases. Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology. John Wiley and Sons Inc; 2022. p. e858–60. pmid:35766884 - 33. Jovita Jusuf Fantoni O, Argentina F, Pamudji R, Hoesin M. Reversal reaction in a borderline lepromatous leprosy patient after COVID-19 vaccine: Prevention or risks? Journal of Pakistan Association of Dermatologists. 2021.
Claim: COVID-19 vaccines cause leprosy (Social media user, 2024-01-04)
Evidence (2024-01-11): Incorrect: The increase in reported leprosy cases started before COVID-19 vaccines became available to the public. Thus, vaccination couldn’t have caused them. Inadequate support: Studies reporting a leprosy reaction in people recently vaccinated against COVID-19 don’t show that vaccines cause leprosy. In fact, leprosy reactions are inflammatory reactions occurring among people who were already infected with leprosy-causing bacteria before being vaccinated. A reel posted on Instagram in early January 2024 claimed that COVID-19 vaccines caused leprosy. The video mentioned a surge in leprosy cases in the U.S., where "none of the traditional risk factors are being found" and that medical journals had been establishing a correlation between COVID-19 vaccines and the surge in leprosy cases. The reel was viewed more than 30,000 times. [...] However, these reports don’t imply that the vaccine caused leprosy. Instead, the immune response to vaccination might increase the likelihood of leprosy reactions, which are inflammatory reactions in people already infected with M. leprae. Indeed, vaccination and infections caused by other pathogens have been identified before as possible risk factors for developing leprosy reactions[6,7]. Therefore, COVID-19 vaccines don’t cause leprosy; for the vaccine to trigger a leprosy reaction, the person needs to be already infected with M. leprae.
Claim: COVID-19 vaccines cause leprosy (Social media user, 2024-01-04)
Evidence (2022-05-26): India’s 2 deadly waves of COVID-19 are estimated to have killed 4 million people by June 2021, but intermittent lockdowns took a separate toll on Indians with leprosy. Detection, treatment, and rehabilitative services were severely disrupted. One indication of COVID-19’s impact on leprosy screening in India is the sharp reduction in the number of new leprosy cases detected. In 2019-2020 during the year before the pandemic, 114,451 new cases were recorded, according to the government’s official count. But in 2020-2021, only 65,147 new cases were detected, according to WHO. [...] Since leprosy affects the nerves, patients often develop painless ulcers, lesions, and sores on the feet that cause damage to tissues and bones. This can affect their ability to walk. To deal with these problems, many rely on specialized footwear. The entire sandal is made from microcellular rubber and is springy and soft, with custom-made insoles that can ease pressure on foot ulcers by redistributing body weight, says physiotherapist Preethi Suresh. At Dayapuram, the footwear is provided free to every leprosy patient. Before the pandemic, Dayapuram’s cobbler, M. Pandi, produced up to 1,000 pairs per month. Then COVID-19 disruptions ground his production to a halt. He is just now getting closer to his pre-COVID production capacity.
Claim: COVID-19 vaccines cause leprosy (Social media user, 2024-01-04)
Evidence (2023-08-17): AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The report being referenced, published in a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention journal, relied on data about leprosy cases that predated the COVID-19 vaccines. Vaccines can’t give people leprosy, a bacterial infection formally known as Hansen’s disease. Some researchers have explored whether the vaccines could prompt an immune response that causes complications or prompts the disease to surface in people already infected, though even that association isn’t clear. [...] "Vaccine safety surveillance systems at CDC have received no increased reports of leprosy after vaccination (including after COVID-19 vaccination)," the CDC’s Immunization Safety Office said in a statement to the AP. "These systems have also not identified any unusual or unexpected reporting patterns of leprosy after vaccination. No vaccine safety data to date support a potential link between COVID-19 vaccines and leprosy. CDC continues to recommend that everyone who is eligible should get vaccinated." Moreover, there’s no way COVID-19 vaccines could actually cause the underlying leprosy infection, said Dr. Jessica Fairley, an infectious disease doctor and Hansen’s disease expert at Emory University. Leprosy is caused by bacteria, she noted, and people live with it in their system for long periods before showing signs.
Claim: COVID-19 vaccines cause leprosy (Social media user, 2024-01-04)
Evidence (2023-12-13): - Bhandari, A.; Shilpa; Gupta, S.; Dogra, S.; Narang, T. Reactions in leprosy patients triggered by COVID-19 vaccination—A cross-sectional study from a tertiary care centre in India. J. Eur. Acad. Dermatol. Venereol. 2022, 36, e971–e972. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed] - Hsu, C.H.; Yang, C.S.; Yen, C.Y. Type 1 lepra reaction induced by a COVID-19 vaccine. J. Eur. Acad. Dermatol. Venereol. 2023, 37, e266–e268. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [...] - Saraswat, N.; Tripathy, D.M.; Kumar, S.; Awasthi, P.; Gopal, M.M. A spectrum of leprosy reactions triggered by COVID-19 vaccination: A series of four cases. J. Eur. Acad. Dermatol. Venereol. 2022, 36, e858–e860. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
Claim: COVID-19 vaccines cause leprosy (Social media user, 2024-01-04)
Evidence (2024-10-09): Using the search strategy, a total of 130 articles were found, of which five were relevant to the study, which were included in the study [Figure 1]. Of the five studies, three were from India (two case series and one cross-sectional), one was from Brazil (case study), and one was from Singapore (case study). Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the characteristics of the included studies [Table 2]. A total of 11 people affected with leprosy-acquired adverse events after the administration of the Covid-19 vaccine were identified from these studies. The adverse reactions were acquired mostly in males [9 (81.8%)], and the majority of them belong to borderline tuberculoid (BT) [4 (36.4%)], borderline lepromatous (BL) [4 (36.4%)], and lepromatous leprosy (LL) [3 (27.3%)]. Most of the patients were released from treatment (MDT) [7 (63.6%)], and 2 (18.2%) were newly identified after vaccination. In the context of Covid-19 vaccination, 4 (45.5%) were vaccinated with ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine, 4 (36.4%) were immunized with Covaxin, and the remaining were vaccinated with Covishield and Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccination. [...] Google Scholar 13. Bhandari A, Shilpa, Gupta S, Dogra S, Narang T. Reactions in leprosy patients triggered by COVID-19 vaccination - a cross-sectional study from a tertiary care centre in India. J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol 2022;36:e971–2.
Claim: COVID-19 vaccines cause leprosy (Social media user, 2024-01-04)
Evidence (2023-03-02): Sri Lanka was winning its battle with leprosy. Then came COVID-19 [...] But the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted Sri Lanka’s fight to eliminate leprosy , giving rise to concerns that thousands are being left undiagnosed and therefore untreated. [...] "COVID-19 and the shortage of fuel that followed affected the detection of cases in 2020, 2021, and early 2022. Now there are undiagnosed patients in the field," Dr Dilini Wijesekara, Consultant Community Physician at the Anti-Leprosy Campaign said.
Claim: “Most of the victims of the Spanish flu didn’t die from the Spanish flu. They died from bacterial pneumonia. And the bacterial pneumonia was caused by [...] wearing masks” (Anonymous, 2020-06-11)
Evidence (2020-06-11): Scientific studies have associated flu with a higher risk of secondary infection with other viruses and bacteria. Face masks are effective at reducing the spread of viral respiratory infections like COVID-19 and the flu. Face masks are safe to use and not associated with an increased risk of bacterial pneumonia or other health problems.
Claim: “Most of the victims of the Spanish flu didn’t die from the Spanish flu. They died from bacterial pneumonia. And the bacterial pneumonia was caused by [...] wearing masks” (Anonymous, 2020-06-11)
Evidence (2018-09-19): An extraordinary archive of letters written by survivors of the Spanish flu pandemic, which paints a vivid picture of a nation gripped by fear and chaos, is helping to provide insights into life in the shadow of a killer disease. [...] In what was a cruel twist of fate, Spanish flu arrived on British shores just as soldiers were returning home from the horrors of war. [...] Spanish flu also afflicted some people with a psychosis that could lead to murder and suicide. Newspaper reports detailed some of these deaths, which the courts attributed to "delirium during influenza".
Claim: “Most of the victims of the Spanish flu didn’t die from the Spanish flu. They died from bacterial pneumonia. And the bacterial pneumonia was caused by [...] wearing masks” (Anonymous, 2020-06-11)
Evidence (2022-02-24): The Spanish flu killed quickly, and it killed in huge numbers. Other flu pandemics in modern times have been far less deadly. Why? [...] Many flu deaths are also caused by secondary, bacterial infections that take root in the weakened body, leading to pneumonia. Antibiotics like penicillin – discovered in 1928 – now allow doctors to reduce that risk, but in 1918 there was no such treatment. Nor did they have vaccines, which now help to protect those who are most at risk. "Our health care infrastructure and diagnostic and therapeutic tools are so much more advanced," says Jessica Belser, who works at the influenza division of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. [...] "It’s well understood that improved sanitation and hygiene, associated with industrialisation and general reductions in poverty, have contributed significantly to overall reductions in infectious disease mortality in the 20th Century," agrees Kyra Grantz at the University of Florida. Analysing records from Chicago during the 1918 pandemic, she has shown that factors such as population density and unemployment directly influenced someone’s chance of catching the disease.
Claim: “Most of the victims of the Spanish flu didn’t die from the Spanish flu. They died from bacterial pneumonia. And the bacterial pneumonia was caused by [...] wearing masks” (Anonymous, 2020-06-11)
Evidence (2020-04-02): Almost exactly 100 years ago, one-third of the world's population found itself infected in a deadly viral pandemic. It was the Spanish flu. Its death toll is unknown but is generally considerd to be more than 50 million. [...] Around 50 to 100 million people were killed worldwide, according to Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease physician and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. He puts the death rate from the 1918 epidemic at about 1 to 2% globally. [...] In a previous version of this story, we incorrectly said a third of the world's population in 1918-1919 died of Spanish flu. Actually, a third of the world's population became infected. In addition, the story had quoted President Trump as saying those who had the Spanish flu had a 50/50 chance of survival. That number does not match what has been found by experts and government and private research institutions. Also, the story said academics generally agree that 50 to 100 million were infected. The most common estimate of Spanish flu cases is about 500 million
Claim: “Most of the victims of the Spanish flu didn’t die from the Spanish flu. They died from bacterial pneumonia. And the bacterial pneumonia was caused by [...] wearing masks” (Anonymous, 2020-06-11)
Evidence (2023-06-12): From September through November of 1918, the death rate from the Spanish flu skyrocketed. In the United States alone, 195,000 Americans died from the Spanish flu in just the month of October. And unlike a normal seasonal flu, which mostly claims victims among the very young and very old, the second wave of the Spanish flu exhibited what’s called a "W curve"—high numbers of deaths among the young and old, but also a huge spike in the middle composed of otherwise healthy 25- to 35-year-olds in the prime of their life. [...] British military doctors conducting autopsies on soldiers killed by this second wave of the Spanish flu described the heavy damage to the lungs as akin to the effects of chemical warfare. [...] Harris believes that the rapid spread of Spanish flu in the fall of 1918 was at least partially to blame on public health officials unwilling to impose quarantines during wartime. In Britain, for example, a government official named Arthur Newsholme knew full well that a strict civilian lockdown was the best way to fight the spread of the highly contagious disease. But he wouldn’t risk crippling the war effort by keeping munitions factory workers and other civilians home.
Claim: “Most of the victims of the Spanish flu didn’t die from the Spanish flu. They died from bacterial pneumonia. And the bacterial pneumonia was caused by [...] wearing masks” (Anonymous, 2020-06-11)
Evidence (2017-11-10): The answer is not straightforward. Historian Alfred Crosby’s important account of the United States’ experience of the pandemic, America’s Forgotten Pandemic (1976), could not be published under that title today, because we are more aware of it than we were 40 years ago. Even in 1976, the same people who excluded the Spanish flu from their list of the major disasters of the 20th century—and let’s face it, it was a particularly disaster-prone century—often had a family memory of the pandemic, and the same is true today. They can name a great-uncle who died of it, distant cousins who were orphaned, a branch of the family that was simply rubbed out in 1918. The Spanish flu is remembered, not as a historical disaster, but as millions of discrete, private tragedies. And for that reason it offers us a fascinating insight into the nature—and fallibility—of collective memory.
Claim: “Most of the victims of the Spanish flu didn’t die from the Spanish flu. They died from bacterial pneumonia. And the bacterial pneumonia was caused by [...] wearing masks” (Anonymous, 2020-06-11)
Evidence (2014-04-29): Scientists announced Monday that they may have solved one of history's biggest biomedical mysteries—why the deadly 1918 "Spanish flu" pandemic, which killed perhaps 50 million people worldwide, largely targeted healthy young adults. (Related: "How Flu Viruses Attack.") [...] Instead, people aged 18 to 29 died in droves during the outbreak, which killed about 1 in 200 of victims. [...] The overall message of the study is a hopeful one, say the researchers, because the bacterial pneumonia secondary to the 1918 flu that killed most of its victims is treatable with modern antibiotics.
Claim: “Most of the victims of the Spanish flu didn’t die from the Spanish flu. They died from bacterial pneumonia. And the bacterial pneumonia was caused by [...] wearing masks” (Anonymous, 2020-06-11)
Evidence (2017-11-10): The legacy of victims of the 1918 flu The quest to understand the 1918 flu fueled many scientific advances, including the discovery of the influenza virus. However, the virus itself did not cause most of the deaths. Instead, a fraction of individuals infected by the virus were susceptible to pneumonia due to secondary infection by bacteria. In an era before antibiotics, pneumonia could be fatal. [...] This article was originally published on The Conversation.
Claim: “Most of the victims of the Spanish flu didn’t die from the Spanish flu. They died from bacterial pneumonia. And the bacterial pneumonia was caused by [...] wearing masks” (Anonymous, 2020-06-11)
Evidence (2020-10-26): In other words, this paper did not blame mask use for causing these bacterial infections. That connection — that mask use is actually dangerous because it causes bacterial infections — was made by social media users and is one that has been repeatedly shot down by experts. In June 2020, The Associated Press investigated the false claim that mask use leads to bacterial pneumonia. Davidson Hamer, infectious disease specialist and professor of global health and medicine at Boston University, said at the time: [...] In short: In 2008, Fauci co-authored a report stating that the majority of deaths during the 1918 flu pandemic "likely resulted directly from secondary bacterial pneumonia." This paper did not state that this secondary bacterial pneumonia had been caused by mask use. In addition to the fact that this study doesn't mention or deal with masks, a multitude of experts have since dismissed the notion that masks increase the risk of bacterial infections.
Claim: “Most of the victims of the Spanish flu didn’t die from the Spanish flu. They died from bacterial pneumonia. And the bacterial pneumonia was caused by [...] wearing masks” (Anonymous, 2020-06-11)
Evidence (2020-10-19): A caption from one user who shared the post on Facebook reads, "Dr Fauci wrote a paper regarding the Spanish Flu and stated that the majority of deaths in 1918-1919 was because of bacterial pneumonia from wearing masks." [...] J. Alexander Navarro, assistant director at the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan and co-editor in chief of the "American Influenza Epidemic of 1918-1919" digital encyclopedia, called the claim that masks caused bacterial pneumonia "absolutely preposterous." [...] Posts online claim Fauci wrote a 2008 study blaming the majority of deaths in the 1918-19 influenza pandemic on bacterial pneumonia from wearing masks.
Claim: “Most of the victims of the Spanish flu didn’t die from the Spanish flu. They died from bacterial pneumonia. And the bacterial pneumonia was caused by [...] wearing masks” (Anonymous, 2020-06-11)
Evidence (2024-03-18): Global deaths of the Spanish flu [...] Based on this, the low estimate of 17.4 million deaths by Spreeuwenberg et al. (2018) implies that the Spanish flu killed almost 1% of the world population.9 [...] Differences in health systems and infrastructure also matter. The Spanish flu hit the world in the days before antibiotics were invented; and many deaths, perhaps most, were not caused by the influenza virus itself, but by secondary bacterial infections. Morens et al (2008) found that during the Spanish flu "the majority of deaths … likely resulted directly from secondary bacterial pneumonia caused by common upper respiratory–tract bacteria."19
Claim: “Most of the victims of the Spanish flu didn’t die from the Spanish flu. They died from bacterial pneumonia. And the bacterial pneumonia was caused by [...] wearing masks” (Anonymous, 2020-06-11)
Evidence (2020-09-01): Seasonal influenza tends to kill the oldest and youngest in a society but in 1918, roughly half of those who died were men and women in their 20s and 30s. People were getting sick and dying in the prime of their lives. [...] We continue to turn back to the 1918 outbreak as a point of comparison, said Jeremy Greene, a historian of medicine at Johns Hopkins. Some of the public health measures a hundred years ago are still put in place today. To "flatten the curve," cities and towns have more or less shut down. That said, Greene cautions against drawing the parallels "too closely." There are similarities to draw between today’s pandemic and the influenza outbreak a hundred years ago. Both come from winged animals — one from birds and the other from bats. Both are respiratory viruses. Both led people to wear masks in public. Both forced cities and schools to shut down for periods of time. And, finally, in both cases, the country’s leaders exacerbated problems by ignoring the early warning signs.
Claim: “Most of the victims of the Spanish flu didn’t die from the Spanish flu. They died from bacterial pneumonia. And the bacterial pneumonia was caused by [...] wearing masks” (Anonymous, 2020-06-11)
Evidence (2017-10-10): The next day two sailors died of influenza. Krusen stated they died of "old-fashioned influenza or grip," not Spanish flu. Another health official declared, "From now on the disease will decrease." [...] Across the country, public officials were lying. U.S. Surgeon General Rupert Blue said, "There is no cause for alarm if precautions are observed." New York City’s public health director declared "other bronchial diseases and not the so-called Spanish influenza...[caused] the illness of the majority of persons who were reported ill with influenza." The Los Angeles public health chief said, "If ordinary precautions are observed there is no cause for alarm." [...] That is why, in my view, the most important lesson from 1918 is to tell the truth. Though that idea is incorporated into every preparedness plan I know of, its actual implementation will depend on the character and leadership of the people in charge when a crisis erupts.