Nurse injects dose of Pfizer / BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine into patient in Jerusalem on December 22 -

Debbie Hill / UPI // SIPA

  • A post on Twitter, referring to an Indian news site, suggests that vaccines against Covid-19 would cause HIV infections.

  • At the origin of the controversy: a publication by four researchers in the scientific journal 

    The Lancet,

    warning of the risk of the use of vaccines using type 5 adenoviruses on populations at risk of HIV.

  • What are adenoviruses?

    What vaccines use it?

    And what should we deduce from it?

    20 Minutes

    takes stock.

Can Covid-19 vaccines cause HIV infections?

This is what videographer Silvano Trotta, “covid-skeptic” suggests, in a publication that went viral last Monday on his Twitter account.

Researchers warn that COVID-19 vaccines can cause HIV infection ... It's time to listen to Professors Montagnier and Fourtillan!

https://t.co/5ud4l61PUG

- SILVANO (@silvano_trotta) December 21, 2020

To back up his point, this former executive of the Corporate Telecommunications Union, now converted into ufology, links an article from Great Game India - an Indian news site already reported by the American magazine

Wired

for having broadcast false information about the new coronavirus - titled: "Researchers warn COVID-19 vaccines can cause HIV infection" ("Researchers warn that vaccines against Covid-19 could cause HIV infections").

In question, in this publication, another article, published this time in the scientific journal 

The Lancet

 on October 19.

Researchers warn there against "the use of vaccines vector adenovirus type 5 (Ad5) on populations at risk of HIV".

What are these vectors and what should be deduced from them? 

20 Minutes 

explains.

FAKE OFF

First of all, it is worth remembering what adenoviruses are.

They are part of a family of viruses (Adenoviridae) which includes a hundred different varieties and of which about forty of them can infect humans.

According to the Futura news site, adenoviruses are widespread in nature and cause pathologies most often benign, such as pharyngitis, conjunctivitis, or gastroenteritis.

"We have all been infected with adenoviruses and have therefore all developed forms of immunity to them,"

Morgane Bomsel, research director at the CNRS and head of a laboratory working on HIV at

20 Minutes

, told 

20 Minutes. 

Cochin Institute

.

How does this relate to vaccines?

“Adenoviruses are very good immunogenic vectors, with a relatively flexible genome.

This allows efficient use, whether for vaccine development or gene therapy, ”explains Morgane Bomsel.

Clearly, adenoviruses are effective in transporting small parts of the disease that are inoculated into the body so that it can develop immunity.

Moreover, by virtue of their genome, they are easily genetically modified by scientists, so as to avoid the appearance of undesirable effects for humans.

According to the News Medical Science website, vaccines based on adenoviruses are therefore generally safe and cause very few side effects.

Why is the “Lancet” sounding the alarm bells?

To understand the concern of the four

Lancet

researchers 

in the article in question

,

we have to go back to 2007. At the time, the pharmaceutical company Merck was working on the design of an HIV vaccine based on a variant of adenovirus. , the famous type 5 adenovirus. Problem: a trial called STEP, controlled by placebo, then revealed that uncircumcised men who had been naturally infected with Ad5 before receiving the vaccine candidate became particularly vulnerable to the AIDS virus.

If the reasons for this increased risk of HIV infection remain obscure, according to 

The Lancet,

a conference organized by the National Institute of Health (NIH), led by Dr. Anthony Faucy (the American “health crisis” Mister) , recommended to end the use of Ad5 as a vector in HIV vaccines.

A news that had undermined nearly twenty years of research.

Which anti-Covid vaccines are affected?

Today, three leading vaccines against Covid-19 use adenoviruses: that of the British AstraZeneca, that of the American Johnson & Johnson and that of the Russian Gamaleya, better known under the name of Sputnik V. But beware. , the latter “do not use Ad5 as a vector, specifies Morgane Bomsel, but other variants of adenovirus.

Regarding the latter, there is no evidence that they can increase the risk of HIV infection ”.

Four vaccine candidates use the Ad5 vector around the world, according to

Science

magazine

.

The most advanced is that of the Chinese company CanSino Biologics, tested in efficacy trials in Russia and Pakistan.

The Chinese company has notably developed a vaccine against Ebola, using the same Ad5 vector.

Asked by 

Science

 about the risk of increased susceptibility to HIV, CEO Yu Xuefeng said that although "there is no clear answer yet on the subject," testing of the Ebola vaccine in one area which had a relatively high HIV prevalence - Sierra Leone - "certainly did not confirm" this hypothesis.

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Coronavirus: Soon a vaccine against Covid-19, but (still) nothing against HIV?

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