Fact check: COVID-19 vaccines are not causing a rise in stillbirths in Canada
Global News
A conspiracy theory circulating online claims stillbirths are rising in Canada after women receive the COVID-19 vaccine. But the facts tell a very different story.
A conspiracy theory circulating online claims stillbirths are rising in Canada after women receive the COVID-19 vaccine. But the facts tell a very different story.
The baseless claims of a rise in fetal deaths across the country began circulating in recent weeks, bolstered by unverified statistics shared on social media and in videos by former medical professionals, whose qualifications have been stripped for touting misinformation.
But Global News has gathered data from the hospitals in question and has found that the recorded number of stillbirths is a minuscule fraction of what anti-vaccine protestors claim.
Health officials have repeatedly said all vaccines approved for use in Canada are safe for those thinking of getting pregnant, pregnant or breastfeeding.
A study published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine found no evidence of an increased risk for early pregnancy loss after COVID-19 vaccination, adding to the findings from other research supporting COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy.
The genesis of the stillbirths conspiracy theory appears to be a video from a rally outside the North Vancouver RCMP office in British Columbia on Nov. 11, spearheaded by retired family physician Mel Bruchet along with Daniel Nagase, a former fill-in doctor who was relieved of his duties after administering patients with an unapproved COVID-19 vaccine. In the video, Bruchet calls the pandemic a “hoax.”
The video shows protesters spreading disinformation about COVID-19. In one clip, Bruchet describes talking with an unnamed individual, who spoke to a number of unnamed doulas, who told him there had been 13 stillbirths in an unspecified 24-hour period at Lions Gate Hospital in North Vancouver.
This is incorrect.
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