FACT CHECK Contrary to false claims circulating on social media, the Covid vaccines were successfully tested on animals.
In an apparent reference to the Covid-19 vaccines, a post on Facebook claims that people are “being Injected by something that couldn’t even make it past the Animal Trials”.
The post does not mention Covid-19 vaccines specifically, and it’s not clear if the post author is referring to a specific vaccine, but all four vaccines approved for use in the UK (Pfizer/BioNTech, Oxford/AstraZeneca, Moderna and Janssen) passed animal trials before being approved.
All four of the vaccines were also tested in large clinical trials and were found to be safe and effective for human use. Untrue claims that animal testing was not carried out, or that all the animals were killed by vaccines during the trials, have proliferated throughout the vaccine rollout, and we have fact-checked them several times before.
Posts on Instagram and Twitter claim to show two bags of donated blood, one much darker than the other, saying that the lighter red one is from someone who has not been vaccinated, and the bag that’s almost black is from someone who has been vaccinated.
We asked NHS Blood and Transplant whether it had observed any visible differences in blood from vaccinated and unvaccinated donors. It said it had not.
There is a certain amount of variation expected in colour between different donors’ blood, but this doesn’t necessarily indicate a health issue in the donor or mean the blood can’t be used by a patient. Basically, sometimes blood looks different.
As a precautionary measure, in the UK you must wait seven days from your Covid vaccine date before donating blood. The NHS says this is so that any side effects from the vaccine are not confused with any side effects from donating blood.
As part of our partnership with charity Pregnant Then Screwed, we’ve been asked on WhatsApp whether pregnant women will be prioritised for booster Covid vaccines, and what the current guidance is.
Decisions around the booster programme are still evolving. At the time of writing, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has said priority groups 1 to 9 should be offered a booster vaccine at least six months after receiving their second dose of Covid vaccine. This includes:
People living in residential care homes for older adults
Adults aged 50 years or over
Frontline health and social care workers
People aged 16 to 49 years with underlying health conditions that put them at higher risk of severe COVID-19
Adult carers
People experiencing homelessness
Adult household contacts of immunosuppressed individuals
There are also special recommendations for individuals who are themselves immunosuppressed. Some pregnant women therefore, may fall into the eligible groups described above.
At present, pregnant women who do not meet the criteria above are not included in the recommended groups for boosters. However, the JCVI has said that this is under “further consideration”.
