How Yale covid study was twisted into anti-vax claim
By F.D. Flam / Bloomberg Opinion
Last week, a blogger wrote about a Yale School of Medicine study that he alleged proved that millions of long covid sufferers might, in fact have been injured by the vaccine. The story blew up on social media among anti-vaxxers and was posted to X by Elon Musk.
The problem is that they were wrong. Shortly after Musk’s post went up, Akiko Iwasaki, the immunologist who headed the study, jumped into Musk’s comments to say, “No. This is not what our study shows.”
The study’s authors posted the paper before it was peer-reviewed, which is not uncommon in biomedical science. Outside immunologists who have examined the study also say it doesn’t show any evidence of vaccine harm. However, the controversy shows how easily well-intentioned research can become politicized and misinterpreted, with serious unintended consequences, especially when vaccines are involved.
For the study, researchers recruited 42 people complaining of various health problems that started within a few days of receiving either their first, second, third or fourth dose of the covid-19 vaccine. They complained primarily of fatigue, exercise intolerance, numbness and tingling, tinnitus and brain fog; common symptoms that overlap with complaints of those with long covid.
https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comment-how-yale-covid-study-was-twisted-into-anti-vax-claim/