Social media post attributed to French virologist false: DAK

Srinagar: The Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Saturday said a social media post attributed to French virologist about Covid-19 vaccine is false.
“A viral message has been doing the rounds on social media claiming that French virologist and Nobel Laureate Luc Montagnier has said that all people who got vaccinated against Covid will die within 2 years,” said DAK President and influenza expert Dr Nisar ul Hassan.
“This has left netizens startled and scared and caused lot of anxiety among those who have taken vaccine,” he said.
“It is also promoting vaccine hesitancy among those who are yet to be vaccinated,” he added.
Dr Hassan said the French virologist has not said anything like that.
“However, Nobel Laureate has raised concerns about antibody- dependent enhancement and variants due to mass Covid-19 vaccination,” he said.
Dr Hassan said the antibody-dependant enhancement (ADE) is a phenomenon in which virus-specific antibodies enhance the entry of the virus, and in some cases, the replication of the virus.
“The potential problem of ADE has already been addressed during Covid-19 vaccine development,” he said adding “no ADE has been documented from cases of reinfection or breakthrough infection.”
The DAK President said variants are produced when the virus replicates in the human body – the more the virus spreads, the more it mutates.
“Vaccine limits the virus transmission and prevents the emergence of new mutants and variants,” he said.
Dr Nisar said Covid-19 vaccine is completely safe.
“Getting vaccinated is the single best way to protect yourself and others from Covid-19,” he said.
He further said vaccination is the only way to stop the pandemic and bring an end to this ongoing public health crisis.
“Authorities need to crack down on those who spread rumors and misinformation about Covid-19 vaccine.
People need to be booked for promoting anti-vaccination propaganda and there is an urgent need to penalize social networking sites for uploading false information regarding the vaccine.
Misinformation has the potential to create public skepticism over Covid-19 vaccine which could undermine our fight against Coronavirus pandemic,” said Dr Nisar.