Fact Check: NO Need For HIV Tests After COVID Shots -- Australia's Vaccine With False Positives Never Mass-Produced

Fact Check

  • by: Ed Payne
Fact Check: NO Need For HIV Tests After COVID Shots -- Australia's Vaccine With False Positives Never Mass-Produced No Test Needed

Does everyone who got a COVID-19 vaccine need to be tested for HIV? No, that's not true: A COVID vaccine that produced false-positive results for the virus that causes AIDS was used during clinical trials in Australia but later discontinued because of the "risk to vaccine confidence" those test results generated. The vaccine used harmless HIV fragments that produced the false positives.

The claim appeared in a post and video (archived here) on Facebook on February 15, 2022. It opened:

HIV PROTEIN?

From "2 weeks to flatten the curve" to... "You should all get tested for HIV."

This is what the post looked like on February 16, 2022:

HIV.png

(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Wed Feb 16 21:41:05 2022 UTC)

The video shared in the Facebook post is old and edited. The original was produced by Australia's Seven News in December 2020. The country had just pulled the plug on the University of Queensland/CSL vaccine, which was under clinical trial and producing false positive HIV test results. The reason? The vaccine contained harmless HIV fragments. The clinical trials looked good. The vaccine was effective, but the PR wasn't working out, Minister for Health Greg Hunt said on December 11, 2020:

It's a powerful and important breakthrough as a platform, and we thank our scientists for that. But the issue, which by mutual agreement with CSL led to the decision not to proceed to Stage 3 trials and, therefore, not to move to a purchase, is that there was the risk of false-positive HIV results. They are false. It comes from the protein that was used. And as a result of that, the scientific advice is that the risk to vaccine confidence was the principal issue here, and we made the decision unanimously as a National Security Committee, the scientific advice was unanimous, the agreement with CSL not to proceed was mutual. And this is the scientific process working. It's the planning process working. It's an honest explanation of some of the challenges we've had. But, at the end of the day, 31 million new vaccines purchased for Australia, and the potential for a slightly earlier completion of the rollout with the commencement process still on track for March, subject to the approvals and the news on our vaccine candidates is strong.

Want to inform others about the accuracy of this story?

See who is sharing it (it might even be your friends...) and leave the link in the comments.:

Lead Stories is working with the CoronaVirusFacts/DatosCoronaVirus Alliance, a coalition of more than 100 fact-checkers who are fighting misinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn more about the alliance here.


  Ed Payne

Ed Payne is a staff writer at Lead Stories. He is an Emmy Award-winning journalist as part of CNN’s coverage of 9/11. Ed worked at CNN for nearly 24 years with the CNN Radio Network and CNN Digital. Most recently, he was a Digital Senior Producer for Gray Television’s Digital Content Center, the company’s digital news hub for 100+ TV stations. Ed also worked as a writer and editor for WebMD. In addition to his journalistic endeavors, Ed is the author of two children’s book series: “The Daily Rounds of a Hound” and “Vail’s Tales.” 

Read more about or contact Ed Payne

About Us

International Fact-Checking Organization Meta Third-Party Fact Checker

Lead Stories is a fact checking website that is always looking for the latest false, misleading, deceptive or inaccurate stories, videos or images going viral on the internet.
Spotted something? Let us know!.

Lead Stories is a:


WhatsApp Tipline

Have a tip or a question? Chat with our friendly robots on WhatsApp!

Add our number +1 (404) 655-4223, follow this link or scan the image below with your phone:

@leadstories

Subscribe to our newsletter

* indicates required

Please select all the ways you would like to hear from Lead Stories LLC:

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. For information about our privacy practices, please visit our website.

We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy practices here.

Most Read

Most Recent

Share your opinion