A Ministry of Health official has debunked as a vaccine infertility myth, claims that persons who take the COVID-19 jab may have difficulty having children.

“There is no evidence at all that this vaccine or any vaccine that has been made over the many years have an impact on fertility,”

 Dr Melody Ennis, director of the Family Health Unit in the Ministry of Health said on Thursday during COVID Conversations, a production of the health ministry.

Jamaica has started the process of vaccinating the population against COVID-19. The country is seeking to achieve herd immunity by inoculating a substantial portion of the population. However, there are fears in some quarters that taking the COVID-19 vaccine could impact fertility.

Some persons have argued that a component in the vaccine could  attack the syncytin- protein in the placenta, causing infertility.

However, Dr Ennis, who is Jamaica’s clinical lead on the vaccine rollout programme, said that the COVID-19 vaccines will not behave in that manner because of the way it is made.

“The composition, the ingredients, the components of this vaccine and the other vaccines that have emergency use authorisation from PAHA/WHO has no amnio acids sequence at all that could affect this placental protein,”

she said.

Dr Ennis, who was responding to a question from a journalist, noted that the issue about the supposed impact of the vaccine on fertility keeps coming up. She said, however, that the research indicates that there is no need for alarm.

“There have indeed been cases of persons who were in Phase 1, Phase 2 and even Phase 3 clinical trials that have become pregnant, and some have even delivered bouncing babies already. So that’s definitely one of the myths that is surrounding the vaccine,”

Dr Ennis said.