TY - JOUR
T1 - United States internet searches for “infertility” following COVID-19 vaccine misinformation
AU - Sajjadi, Nicholas B.
AU - Nowlin, William
AU - Nowlin, Ross
AU - Wenger, David
AU - Beal, John Martin
AU - Vassar, Matt
AU - Hartwell, Micah
N1 - Funding Information:
Competing interests: Dr Vassar has received grant funding from the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Office of Research Integrity, and Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology for other research. Micah Hartwell has received research support through the US Department of Justice. Funding and support is unrelated to the current work.
Publisher Copyright:
Open Access. © 2021 Nicholas B. Sajjadi et al., published by De Gruyter. International License.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Context: On December 1, 2020, Drs. Wolfgang Wodarg and Micheal Yeadon petitioned to withhold emergency use authorization of the BNT162b2 messenger ribonucleic acid vaccine for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) manufactured by BioNTech and Pfizer, raising concern for female infertility risks but acknowledging the lack of evidence. The European Medicines Agency and the US Food and Drug Administration ultimately issued emergency use authorizations, but misinformation claiming that COVID-19 vaccines cause female infertility began circulating on social media, potentially influencing public perception and medical decision making among pregnant patients or those seeking to become pregnant. Objectives: To determine the potential influence misinformation may have had on public interest in infertility related topics, as analyzed through internet search statistics in the US. Methods: The Google Trends tool was used to analyze results for the search terms “infertility,” “infertility AND vaccine,” and “infertility AND COVID vaccine” in the US from February 4, 2020 to February 3, 2021. We applied autoregressive integrated moving average models to forecast expected values, comparing them with actual observed values. Results: At peak interest (100), the forecasted relative search volumes interest for the search terms “infertility,” “infertility AND vaccine,” and “infertility AND COVID vaccine” were 45.47 (95% CI, 33.27-57.66; p<0.001), 0.88 (95% CI, 2.87-4.63; p<0.001), and 0.29 (95% CI, −2.25-2.82; p<0.001). The actual relative search volumes at peak searching represented 119.9, 11,251, and 34,900% increases, respectively, when compared with forecasted values. Conclusions: COVID-19 vaccine misinformation corresponded with increased internet searches for topics related to infertility in the US. Dispelling misinformation and informing patients about the risks and benefits of COVID-19 vaccination may prevent unnecessary vaccine hesitancy or refusal, contributing to successful vaccination efforts.
AB - Context: On December 1, 2020, Drs. Wolfgang Wodarg and Micheal Yeadon petitioned to withhold emergency use authorization of the BNT162b2 messenger ribonucleic acid vaccine for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) manufactured by BioNTech and Pfizer, raising concern for female infertility risks but acknowledging the lack of evidence. The European Medicines Agency and the US Food and Drug Administration ultimately issued emergency use authorizations, but misinformation claiming that COVID-19 vaccines cause female infertility began circulating on social media, potentially influencing public perception and medical decision making among pregnant patients or those seeking to become pregnant. Objectives: To determine the potential influence misinformation may have had on public interest in infertility related topics, as analyzed through internet search statistics in the US. Methods: The Google Trends tool was used to analyze results for the search terms “infertility,” “infertility AND vaccine,” and “infertility AND COVID vaccine” in the US from February 4, 2020 to February 3, 2021. We applied autoregressive integrated moving average models to forecast expected values, comparing them with actual observed values. Results: At peak interest (100), the forecasted relative search volumes interest for the search terms “infertility,” “infertility AND vaccine,” and “infertility AND COVID vaccine” were 45.47 (95% CI, 33.27-57.66; p<0.001), 0.88 (95% CI, 2.87-4.63; p<0.001), and 0.29 (95% CI, −2.25-2.82; p<0.001). The actual relative search volumes at peak searching represented 119.9, 11,251, and 34,900% increases, respectively, when compared with forecasted values. Conclusions: COVID-19 vaccine misinformation corresponded with increased internet searches for topics related to infertility in the US. Dispelling misinformation and informing patients about the risks and benefits of COVID-19 vaccination may prevent unnecessary vaccine hesitancy or refusal, contributing to successful vaccination efforts.
KW - COVID-19
KW - Google Trends
KW - Infertility
KW - Internet searches
KW - Patient information
KW - Vaccine
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85104442151&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1515/jom-2021-0059
DO - 10.1515/jom-2021-0059
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85104442151
VL - 121
SP - 583
EP - 587
JO - Journal of Osteopathic Medicine
JF - Journal of Osteopathic Medicine
IS - 6
ER -