It is false that Canada has admitted that triple-vaccinated people against Covid-19 have developed AIDS – 10/13/2023 – Health

It is false that the Canadian government has admitted that people who were vaccinated against Covid-19 have developed AIDS. The Public Health Agency of Canada confirmed that the news is false and presented links to international checking agencies that deny the correlation.

A publication on X (formerly Twitter) verified by Projeto Comprova distorts epidemiological data from the Canadian government. In these reports, there is no mention of HIV. There is only information regarding a summary of Covid-19 cases, deaths, tests and variants of concern across Canada over time.

The data highlighted in the investigated content is inadequate and the comparisons proposed there do not make sense. In one of them, the text states that the unvaccinated population had fewer cases of Covid-19. However, the unvaccinated population is much smaller than the vaccinated one.

For example, in the second epidemiological week mentioned in the article, ending on February 13, 2022, official data from the Canadian government show that the population vaccinated with two doses was 13.72 million inhabitants. Those who were triple vaccinated were 16.84 million and those who were not vaccinated were 5.75 million. This data was obtained from the Wayback Machine platform, which compiles old Internet pages. In the content investigated, the population by vaccination status was underestimated in the case of those vaccinated (11.50 and 11.70 million, respectively), and overestimated for those not vaccinated (13.21 million).

For comparison purposes, since the start of vaccination, in December 2020, 40% of confirmed Covid cases were unvaccinated, compared to 32.3% of those vaccinated with the initial schedule and 18.7% with a booster dose. These numbers are as of October 14, 2022, the date the Public Health Agency of Canada portal was last updated.

Furthermore, the content investigated uses data from December 2020 to 2022, when the proportion of vaccinated and unvaccinated fluctuated drastically with the advancement of immunization. Canada was slow to start the process, but there was a high demand for vaccination, in addition to adopting stricter measures to contain the spread of the virus.

Some of the graphics used in the disinformation material present correct data about vaccinated people in Canada. The numbers shown do not reveal any relationship with cases of AIDS or acquired immunodeficiency.

Consulted by the report, immunologist and specialist in parasitic and infectious diseases José David Urbáez Brito, who is also president of the Infectious Diseases Society of the Federal District, reinforces that the idea that vaccinated people lose immunity and develop AIDS is not sustainable.

“Firstly, AIDS is a disease caused by a virus. It is the human immunodeficiency virus, HIV. So this vaccine (for Covid-19) has no living component, nothing that could resemble a virus. Therefore, there would be no way (of causing infection). Even if the intention was for an international conspiracy completely unethical, there is no way”, says the expert.

He also assesses that the methodology, of comparing vaccine effectiveness based on the number of vaccinated and unvaccinated cases, is only used in the testing phase or in the initial stages of creating a vaccine. “The calculation you make when the vaccine is created, at this point you will compare the number of cases among vaccinated people with the number of cases among unvaccinated people. You calculate the effectiveness because you will see that among those vaccinated there was one case, among the unvaccinated had 100 cases. So, the vaccine prevented 99 cases”, he explained.

False, for Comprova, is content that is invented or has been edited to change its original meaning and disseminated deliberately to spread a falsehood.

Why we investigate

Comprova monitors suspicious content published on social networks and messaging applications about public policies and elections at the federal level and opens investigations into those publications that have greater reach and engagement. You can also suggest checks via WhatsApp +55 11 97045-4984. Suggestions and questions related to questionable content can also be sent to Sheet via WhatsApp 11 99486-0293.

Read the full verification on the Comprova website.

The investigation of this content was carried out by Nexo, O Povo and Correio do Estado and published on October 10 by Comprova, a coalition that brings together 41 vehicles to check viral content. It was verified by Folha, A Gazeta, Estadão and NSC.