WHAT WAS CLAIMED
Pfizer listed hMPV as a "side effect" of its COVID-19 vaccine.
OUR VERDICT
False. The virus was listed as an "adverse event", not as a proven "side effect".
AAP FACTCHECK - Vaccine safety data has been misinterpreted to falsely claim human metapneumovirus is listed as a "side-effect" of COVID-19 vaccines.
A Pfizer safety surveillance data report listed human metapneumovirus (hMPV) as an "adverse event" reported after vaccination, not as a "side effect" proven to be caused by the jab.
The claim is spreading on social media following reports of a human metapneumovirus (hMPV) outbreak in northern China.
The virus causes a respiratory infection with symptoms that include a cough, fever, runny or blocked nose, and headache.
The claim is in a Facebook post that accuses the media of ramping up "fear porn" about hMPV.
"It's a listed side effect on Pfizer C-jab...." the caption said.
"Would be interesting to know if those flocking the hospitals now are [vaccinated] or not???"
It included an image of a list of purported side effects from Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine.
The list was from a Pfizer safety surveillance data report released in 2022 as part of a freedom of information lawsuit in the US.
The document details adverse events and fatalities reported by people who received the vaccine between December 1, 2020, and February 28, 2021.
About 42,000 case reports were collected from various sources, including medical literature and studies, Pfizer marketing programs and reporting databases from 63 countries (See report Pages 5-6). Reporting databases, such as the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration's Database of Adverse Event Notifications or the US Centers for Disease Control's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, include self-reports by members of the public, and reports from healthcare providers and pharmaceutical companies.
"Metapneumovirus infection" was listed in Appendix 1 of the report under the headline "adverse events of special interest" (P35).
Adverse events describe any health incident observed after someone takes a medicine, regardless of whether the drug caused it.
These differ from side effects, which have been scientifically established to be causally linked to a drug.
"An accumulation of adverse event reports (AERs) does not necessarily indicate that a particular AE was caused by the drug," the Pfizer report said (P6).
A Pfizer spokesman previously told AAP FactCheck that spontaneous adverse event reports were collected for all products to monitor for potential safety issues that may not have been seen in clinical studies, but such events may not have any causal relationship to the vaccine.
Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia, said doctors were encouraged to report all adverse events regardless of the likelihood that they were caused by a drug.
"It is only when you get a lot of reports (for a common health effect) or a few reports of a very rare event that you start further studies so that causation can be inferred or disproved," he told AAP FactCheck. "However, with common outcomes such as the common cold we would expect to see many more reports before we would trigger the need for further studies.
"So it is likely that most of the adverse events listed in Appendix 1 are not actually caused by the vaccine."
Professor Hunter said hMPV was very common and that when large numbers of people are vaccinated, some people will likely develop an infection around the same time. "So I strongly doubt the reports are evidence of a causal link between the two," he said. The claim has also been debunked by Science Feedback.
AAP FactCheck has also previously debunked another false claim about Pfizer's safety surveillance data report.
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