An Instagram post has claimed that adenovirus vector in the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine is linked to youths being diagnosed with hepatitis. The claim has been debunked on grounds that the vaccine is still not approved for children, neither in the United States nor in the United Kingdom.
The claim surfaced on this Instagram post on 23 April, 2022:
Tweeted by a "chiropractic internist" Brad Campbell, the post shows a screenshot of his tweet along with a reply by Stanton Hom, a "prenatal/pediatric chiropractic specialist."
The fake claim is associated with the recent strange rise of hepatitis cases among children aged one month to 16 years of age, in Europe and United States. After careful analysis of the cases medical professionals believe that adenovirus might be "a probable cause," BBC reports.
According to CDC, as of 25 April the J&J/Janssen vaccine remains un-approved for utilization by people under 17 years of age in the United States. The website states, "Currently, the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is the only vaccine authorized or approved for children ages 5 through 17 years,"
Hence the J&J vaccine cannot be ruled in to be a possible source of child hepatitis cases.
In case of England, the National Health Service has only approved the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for children 5 to 15. The information is easily accessible on UK's public sector information website, GOV.UK.
Further debunking the fake claim the Vaccine Alliance, Gavi, states "Importantly, none of the children diagnosed with hepatitis in the UK have received a COVID vaccination, so there's no basis to believe COVID vaccines have anything to do with this spike."
Quoting the UK Health Security Agency, the BBC reports also reported that same that none of the children suffering from the illness have been vaccinated.
As of 21 April, some 169 cases of child hepatitis of a mysterious source have been reported from more than 11 countries. These include the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the United Kingdom), Spain, Israel, the United States of America, Denmark, Ireland, The Netherlands, Italy, Norway, France, Romania and Belgium.
The highest count of the infected is 114 from the United Kingdom, even though adenovirus has been ruled in as a probable cause more investigations are required to make an official announcement of the definite source, according to World Health Organization reports on 23rd April.
