Did the Canadian government publish data suggesting those triple-vaccinated against COVID-19 have developed AIDS and are five times more likely to die of COVID than the unvaccinated? No, that's not true: The data does not show immune systems being destroyed by COVID-19 vaccines but instead how vaccine efficacy wanes over time.
COVID vaccines boost the ability of our bodies to fight coronavirus. They do not compromise our body's capacity to fight infections and other diseases. AIDS weakens our immune systems, making us more susceptible to them.
The data also does not show that people who are triple-vaccinated are five times more likely to die of COVID-19 than the unvaccinated. Higher numbers of vaccinated people are dying because most Canadians are vaccinated. The pool of unvaccinated Canadians is much smaller in comparison. "As the majority of Canadians are now vaccinated, counts will inherently be higher within this population, compared to the unvaccinated population. However, risk among this population may be lower, despite higher case counts," the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) said.
According to Canada's COVID-19 vaccination tracker, 81.3% of the Canadian population had received at least two doses of a COVID vaccine as of March 22, 2022, and 47% of Canadians were fully vaccinated with a third dose.
The claims appeared in an article (archived here) published by The Exposé on March 20, 2022, under the title "Official Government of Canada data is truly terrifying; it suggests the Triple Vaccinated have developed AIDS & are now 5.1x more likely to die of Covid-19 than the Unvaccinated." It opened:
The latest official Covid-19 figures from the Government of Canada are truly terrifying. They show that the double vaccinated population across Canada have now lost on average 74% of their immune system capability, and the triple vaccinated population across Canada have now lost on average 73% of their immune system capability compared to the natural immune system of unvaccinated people.
So much damage has now been done that the figures show the double vaccinated population are on average 3.8 times more likely to be infected with Covid-19 and 3.3 times more likely to die of Covid-19 than the unvaccinated population.
But it's even worse for the triple vaccinated population in terms of their risk of death. The official figures show that they are on average 3.7 times more likely to be infected with Covid-19 but 5.1 times more likely to die of Covid-19 than the unvaccinated population.
These figures therefore suggest that both the double and triple vaccinated population in Canada have now had so much damage caused to their immune systems by the Covid-19 injections that they have now developed Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome.
This is what the article looked like on The Exposé website on March 22, 2022:
(Source: The Exposé screenshot taken on Tue Mar 22 15:22:52 2022 UTC)
The data
The claim is based on data published in the Government of Canada's COVID-19 daily epidemiology update.
Charts created for The Exposé article purport to illustrate a waning immune system caused by the COVID vaccines, but that's not what they're showing at all. Instead of being a measure of "immune system performance," the underlying data reflect vaccine efficacy or vaccine effectiveness. The term "immune system performance" is not found in the 31-page report for March 22, 2022.
It's no secret vaccine effectiveness wanes over time. It's the reason many public health agencies around the world (here and here) have endorsed boosters, including Canada.
Lead Stories has already debunked similar articles by The Exposé that misrepresented or used public health numbers in misleading ways.
COVID vaccines don't cause AIDS
The Exposé article says Canadian government data suggests triple-vaccinated people have developed AIDS, but that's not possible. In a February 11, 2022, email to Lead Stories, Stuart C. Ray, M.D., professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said people vaccinated for COVID are at no risk of getting AIDS from the shot or booster:
There is no scientific basis for even speculating that the authorized and approved vaccines to prevent COVID-19 could cause AIDS.
In a March 23, 2022, email to Lead Stories, PHAC said The Exposé article "clearly misrepresents how vaccines and the immune system work":
There is also no evidence that COVID-19 vaccines impair the immune system or increase the susceptibility of COVID-19-vaccinated individuals to other (non-SARS-CoV-2) viruses or any other pathogen. Many studies carried out by a myriad of independent research groups have consistently demonstrated that the COVID-19 vaccines induce a robust immune response in vaccinated individuals and the fact that they are so protective against hospitalization and death from COVID-19 attests to the fact that the immune response is not impaired by these vaccines.
This is how PHAC defines HIV and AIDS:
The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a sexually transmitted and blood-borne infection (STBBI) that can be transmitted through exposure to the blood, semen, vaginal fluid, rectal fluid and human milk from a person with HIV. Perinatal transmission can also occur during pregnancy or birth.
Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a long-term sequela of HIV infection.
COVID vaccines work the opposite of HIV and AIDS. The shots help humans develop immunity to the virus that causes COVID without someone having to get the illness, according to PHAC. They boost a person's immunity to fight disease, not weaken it.
Lead Stories previously debunked another story suggesting COVID vaccines cause AIDS.
Triple-vaccinated are not more likely to die
While The Exposé article claims statistics from PHAC show people who are triple-vaccinated are 5.1 times more likely to die of COVID than the unvaccinated population, that conclusion fails to take into account the relative size of the groups being compared. In its email to Lead Stories, PHAC said:
Canadian epidemiological data indicate that the vaccines used in Canada are very effective at preventing severe illness, hospitalization, and death from COVID-19. The data show that individuals fully vaccinated and fully vaccinated with an additional dose who were diagnosed with COVID-19 were significantly protected from severe outcomes. From January 30, 2022 to February 27, 2022, unvaccinated cases were 4 times more likely to be hospitalized and 6 times more likely to die as a result of their illness, compared to fully vaccinated cases. Unvaccinated cases were 11 times more likely to be hospitalized and 15 times more likely to die as a result of their illness, compared to cases fully vaccinated with an additional dose during this same 4-week period.
