(Joshua Paladino, Headline USA) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a rise in pediatric hepatitis cases, and the World Health Organization immediately denied their connection to COVID-19 shots—an early indication that the mRNA injections may be responsible.
Hepatitis, or liver inflammation, has several forms, but the most common types are A, B, and C, which are usually caused by ingesting infected feces in food or water, having sex with an infected person, or using drugs intravenously.
These routes of hepatitis transmission do not typically affect children in first-world countries, where food and water supplies are mostly safe.
Yet, the WHO reported 169 acute hepatitis cases in children under five years old across 12 nations, and the CDC reported that 10 states have children who are being treated for hepatitis infections.
Most cases, 114, have occurred in the United Kingdom, according to National File.
In Wisconsin, four children were infected with hepatitis and one has died. In Minnesota, two infected children need liver transplants.
In total, 17 children have needed liver transplants.
Children in Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, New York, North Carolina and Tennessee have been infected, too.
PolitiFact fact checkers swooped in to defend pharmaceutical companies against allegations that the COVID-19 shots could have caused the mysterious rise in childhood liver inflammation.
Fact checkers debunked posts that tried to connect the Johnson & Johnson injection to the hepatitis cases.
“Until proper long term safety studies are done, it is every healthcare providers (sic) duty to assume it is related,” one doctor wrote in a response to a tweet that explained the J&J shot’s possible connection to hepatitis.
“Kids are getting hepatitis. It’s being caused [by] an adenovirus. J&J had an adenovirus vector. Couldn’t possibly be related,” another doctor posted on Twitter.
Facebook flagged these reposted statements as misinformation, and PolitiFact agreed.
“Health officials at the WHO and in the UK said there is no connection to any vaccine because most of the cases involved children who aren’t vaccinated,” PolitiFact said.
“The J&J vaccine is not approved for anyone under 18, and children under 5 are not eligible for any available COVID-19 vaccine. We rate this claim False.”
