Do vaccinations cause liver flukes in the human stomach? No, that's not true: Vaccine experts contacted by Lead Stories called the notion "science fiction" and "nonsense." Liver flukes are parasites you can get from eating contaminated food like raw fish or certain plants. Vaccines are safe, tested treatments that protect you from diseases and have nothing to do with parasites.
The claim appeared in a post and video (archived here) published on X by Concerned Citizen on November 25, 2024. The video's caption said:
This is a Liver Fluke - found in a Human Stomach.
And yes they were before you ask.....
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Tue Nov 26 16:00:47 2024 UTC)
Lead Stories has previously debunked false claims from this social media account, including "Fact Check: Video Does NOT Show Tornadoes In Florida During Milton Landfall In October 2024" and "Fact Check: Video Does NOT Show UK Police Chasing One Of '100 Far-Right' Protesters In 2024."
The post provided no evidence to support its implied assertion that vaccines were to blame or to confirm that the images in the video depict liver flukes at all.
What are liver flukes?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says liver flukes are parasites that can infect people and cause problems in the liver and bile ducts. There are two different families of liver flukes.
A key risk factor for one type of liver fluke is consuming raw or undercooked freshwater fish from regions where the infection is common, like Africa, Asia and South America. Additionally, people can become infected by drinking contaminated water or eating vegetables washed or irrigated with such water.
The CDC doesn't cite vaccines as a cause of liver flukes in the human stomach. The public health agency addressed this claim about the parasites in an email to Lead Stories on November 26, 2024:
There is no vaccine safety data to date that indicates an association between vaccines and liver flukes.
Experts
Two infectious disease experts contacted by Lead Stories cast doubt on the notion of vaccines causing liver flukes in people. In a November 26, 2024, phone interview with Lead Stories, Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said, "I would have to categorize the concept as science fiction." He continued:
There is no way that liver flukes could have anything to do with the creation and manufacture of a vaccine, which is done in the most kind of sterile and extremely controlled conditions.
Dr. Mark Rupp, a professor and division chief of infectious diseases in the University of Nebraska Medical Center's department of internal medicine, echoed Schaffner in a November 26, 2024, email, saying there is nothing in the vaccines that would deliver these parasites into someone's body. Additionally, he added:
I am aware of no credible evidence or plausible biologic theory to indicate that vaccination with [the] COVID-19 vaccine, or any other commercially available/licensed vaccine, would make a human more susceptible to infection with a liver fluke.
Rupp added that just the opposite is true:
There are scientific efforts underway to develop vaccines to prevent infection due to liver and blood flukes (see recent publication: Recent Progress in the Development of Liver Fluke and Blood Fluke Vaccines - PMC) as these parasites cause a great deal of human suffering worldwide.
Schaffner concluded his phone interview by saying the social media post and video don't make any sense:
It's akin to thinking that vaccines can contain microchips, which is also a very fanciful and science-fiction kind of concept. I don't know where these notions come from, but there are people out there with remarkable imagination.
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Additional Lead Stories fact checks of claims about vaccines can be found here.
