False: WHO created a tetanus shot that can attack pregnancy hormones.

By: Rashmi S
April 26 2021

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Conspiracy theorists have said that WHO sponsored a tetanus vaccination program that sterilized women. The claim is baseless.Scientific Research reported that the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB) issued a press release stating that the World Health Organization (WHO) was secretly using a “birth-control vaccine" in its anti-tetanus program between 2013 and 2015. The report said: "Conjugating TT with hCG causes pregnancy hormones to be attacked by the immune system." There is no evidence to support this. In 1989, the WHO assembly resolved that neonatal tetanus should be eliminated. WHO's strategy was to deliver the tetanus toxoid (TT) vaccine to protect all newborns against neonatal tetanus. It provides safe services for pregnant women and effective surveillance aimed at detecting and reacting to every case of neonatal tetanus. The hCG is commonly referred to as the “pregnancy hormone.” According to a report by Science-Based Medicine: "As far back as the 1970s, hCG was conjugated to tetanus toxoid in order to make a vaccine against hCG, because hCG itself did not provoke enough of an immune response. There have been clinical trials of such vaccine contraceptives using hCG, and it is possible to prevent pregnancy by this approach, although antibody response against hCG declines with time." WHO sponsored the TT vaccination program, focused on a severe form of tetanus found in newborns by vaccinating women of reproductive age. The WHO told the Washington Post that "It concentrates these efforts on women who might become pregnant because inoculation can pass along antibodies to newborn infants." The Washington Post also reported that 'Critics believe that the vaccines contain the Beta-hCG hormone, which in high doses, and administered in a particular way, may cause complications in pregnancy." According to an article published by NCBI, 'The Kenya Catholic Doctors Association claimed they had tested samples of the tetanus vaccine used in Kenya and found them to be laced with (b-HCG) (a component of experimental birth control vaccines). UNICEF noted that there was no laboratory in Kenya capable of making an accurate analysis of that nature. In 2017 Business Daily Africa reported that the company, Agriq-Quest, involved in testing TT was audited. That audit resulted in Agriq-Quest losing its laboratory accreditation. There is no evidence that the tetanus vaccination program by WHO was aimed at sterilizing women. Most of such claims have their roots in laboratory testing widely considered to have been flawed in the method. The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to a lot of potentially dangerous misinformation. For reliable advice on COVID-19 including symptoms, prevention and available treatment, please refer to the World Health Organisation or your national healthcare authority.