Okay, I said I wasn’t going to do it; I was definitely going to begin with some topic – almost any topic – that wasn’t COVID.  But it seems inescapable … the most significant medical, social, and political issues with which we are confronted today keep boiling down to COVID.  So, I guess I can’t escape.  But up-front: I plan to blog (if that’s a word) about lots of things beyond the accursed COVID-19.

Most of my opinions, I should point out, will fall in the corral of general scientific orthodoxy: I am, in fact, a pretty conventional academic pediatrician and immunologist. Occasionally I will disagree with the usual wisdom and when that happens, I’ll do my best to justify my dissent and explain where it comes from.

The topics and questions I will address will come from my patients, my reading, and my thoughts.  If you think I am wrong about something, please let me know (sydney@westrockpediatrics.com).

Hmmm, where to start? Here’s one place: Today a patient ran a rumor by me – that COVID immunization affects fertility.  I’m incredibly grateful that she asked. It gave me an opportunity to review the literature, to reassure her, and to learn more about “news” and disinformation.

It’s one of many false rumors about COVID shots that are circulating widely these days1.  Let’s see: COVID vaccine decreases fertility (false); it changes your DNA (false); it is dangerous to people who have had flu shots (false); can cause a heart condition in kids (well, yeah, but very, very, very rarely; affected kids seem to recover perfectly; and if your kid isn’t immunized the risk to their health is much greater). One place the fertility rumor is circulating is in the Orthodox Jewish community and it’s leading people to resist COVID shots for teens and young women. The fertility rumor is, of course, completely made up and without a shred of evidence. Honestly, I expect mishigih – “nutso” is a close translation – ideas like this in New York City but I was astonished to hear it circulating in New Haven, which has a well-deserved reputation for reason and good sense and not buying obvious mishighas.

To me, the interesting question is this: ”How do these demonstrable false and medically dangerous ideas get started?” If you’ll forgive my only-slightly-paranoid thinking – and remember, even a paranoid has enemies – it’s pretty clear that it all goes back to a successful Russian disinformation campaign2. The campaign is aimed at adding to the general American distrust of government, with the side benefit of adding to the social cost of illness, deaths, and economic disruption that results when an epidemic is flogged on.  And the paranoia is not just my own but is also shared by the US State Department3. But the important thing worth pointing out is this:  the ubiquitous disinformation campaigns pouring out of Russia are serious weapons – cheap to deploy but expensive and dangerous to the targets (alas, us!).  So, ignore all the falsehoods and get the damned vaccine!

1.      Islam, Md Saiful et al., “COVID-19 vaccine rumors and conspiracy theories: The need for cognitive inoculation against misinformation to improve vaccine adherence,” PLos ONE 16(5), e025:1605, May 12, 2021

2.      Simon Lewis, “U.S. says Russian-backed outlets spread COVID-19 vaccine ‘Disinformation’,” Reuters, March 7, 2021

3.      GEC Special Report: Russia’s Pillars of Disinformation and Propaganda, U.S. State Department, 2020

Sydney Z. Spiesel, PhD MD is a pediatrician in Woodbridge, CT and a Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the Yale School of Medicine