The Claim:
An anti-vaccine Twitter account features the story of a 29-year-old who died from sepsis after he was vaccinated. The tweet goes on to hypothesize that sepsis cases have risen since COVID vaccination programs began.
The Facts:
Sepsis is a severe response of the body’s immune system to an infection. It can lead to high fever, an elevated heart rate, fast breathing, and, if left untreated, can progress to septic shock, which is characterized by dangerously low blood pressure and organ failure.
COVID vaccines are designed to trigger an immune response against the virus, but they do not cause the same response that leads to sepsis. The vaccines do not contain live virus particles and do not cause a full-blown infection. On the other hand, COVID infection, as well as secondary infections due to COVID can cause sepsis.
Sepsis cases has been increasing in hospitals, especially during the pandemic. In California, the number of sepsis cases that patients got while in the hospital went up by 46% from 2019 to 2021 because hospitals faced challenges like not having enough staff and having too many sick patients, which made it hard to prevent infections. 40% of all severe sepsis cases who died in 2021 in hospitals had been diagnosed with COVID.
While there has been an increase during the pandemic, this tweet ignored the fact that sepsis cases have been steadily rising for decades for a number of reasons. To blame this on COVID vaccines is ignorant at best and malicious at worst.
Disclaimer: Science is always evolving and our understanding of these topics may have evolved too since this was originally posted. Be sure to check out our most recent posts and browse the latest Just the Facts Topics for the latest.
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