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Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg and Dr. Michael Yeadon wrote a request to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) on December 1, 2020, demanding that progress on the vaccine candidates be stopped until alleged flaws in the trials are remedied.

(Some sources falsely claim Yeadon was "head of research" in Pfizer. Snopes refute this, and say he was a "vice president and chief scientist for allergy and respiratory". Snopes also criticizes each of the two for false statements about COVID-19 in the past.)

In section "C" ("STATEMENT OF GROUNDS") in point "XI" there is a claim about fertility:

Several vaccine candidates are expected to induce the formation of humoral antibodies against spike proteins of SARS-CoV-2. Syncytin-1 (see Gallaher, B., “Response to nCoV2019 Against Backdrop of Endogenous Retroviruses” - http://virological.org/t/response-to-ncov2019-against-backdrop-of-endogenous-retroviruses/396), which is derived from human endogenous retroviruses (HERV) and is responsible for the development of a placenta in mammals and humans and is therefore an essential prerequisite for a successful pregnancy, is also found in homologous form in the spike proteins of SARS viruses. There is no indication whether antibodies against spike proteins of SARS viruses would also act like anti-Syncytin-1 antibodies. However, if this were to be the case this would then also prevent the formation of a placenta which would result in vaccinated women essentially becoming infertile. To my knowledge, Pfizer/BioNTech has yet to release any samples of written materials provided to patients, so it is unclear what, if any, information regarding (potential) fertility-specific risks caused by antibodies is included.

According to section 10.4.2 of the Pfizer/BioNTech trial protocol, a woman of childbearing potential (WOCBP) is eligible to participate if she is not pregnant or breastfeeding, and is using an acceptable contraceptive method as described in the trial protocol during the intervention period (for a minimum of 28 days after the last dose of study intervention).

This means that it could take a relatively long time before a noticeable number of cases of postvaccination infertility could be observed.

Is there is a significant chance that antibody response against spike proteins of SARS-CoV-2 could result also in antibody response against syncytin-1 and cause infertility?

Learner
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    I upvoted for the sustantial effort put in asking/documenting this q, but this seems like a fairly bad fit here because the quoted claims is actually an [argument from ignorance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_ignorance)... – Fizz Dec 07 '20 at 13:04
  • "There is no indication whether antibodies against spike proteins of SARS viruses would also act like anti-Syncytin-1 antibodies. However, if this were to be the case this would then also prevent the formation of a placenta which would result in vaccinated women essentially becoming infertile. To my knowledge, Pfizer/BioNTech has yet to release any samples of written materials provided to patients, so it is unclear what, if any, information regarding (potential) fertility-specific risks caused by antibodies is included." – Fizz Dec 07 '20 at 13:04
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    There's not an actual claim there of how likely that is to be. So this is probably a better question to ask on https://medicalsciences.stackexchange.com/ – Fizz Dec 07 '20 at 13:05
  • Thanks, Fizz. I will post it on medicalsciences. I will leave it here for some time too, even though you're right and I will not be suprised if mods will decide to remove it. – Learner Dec 07 '20 at 13:07
  • In case other miss[ed] this: it was asked on Med.SE now: https://medicalsciences.stackexchange.com/questions/25255/is-there-a-reason-to-be-anxious-about-claim-that-covid-19-vaccine-could-turn-out – Fizz Dec 07 '20 at 20:07
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    Dr. Wodarg is a problematic source. He denied the seriousness of Covid from the beginning, distributed wrong mathematical models and used far right media to push his agenda. He's a classical Covid denier. Most sources on this are in German, so I'll link the relevant Wikipedia section. Sources are linked in there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Wodarg#Controversies – Modus Tollens Dec 07 '20 at 21:04
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    @ModusTollens: an earlier version of this q said something like that, but the mod deleted that part, probably because it was considered a personal attack. (See edit history.) – Fizz Dec 08 '20 at 01:05
  • Michael Yeadon [isn't much better](https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/dec/02/blog-posting/former-pfizer-employee-wrong-coronavirus-pandemic-/). – jdunlop Dec 08 '20 at 03:14
  • Is the claim only made in regards to two of the USA vaccine candidates? There’s probably 10+ others. (Maybe the title needs tweaking accordingly.) – Rebecca J. Stones Dec 08 '20 at 09:34
  • @RebeccaJ.Stones the link says "a request to the European Medicines Agency" and in the first few paragraphs of the document it says "stay all other clinical trials". – Weather Vane Dec 08 '20 at 16:15
  • To me the line of reasoning does appear valid. However, it does also require a lot. The first thing is to what extent the protein or molecules in question are similar, and if indeed it is enough.To me this is a complicated matter about proteins, possibly not able to be solved. Thus it could be a valid risk, and emperical evidence will be required to answer. However, if it were to be true, the immunity acquired, would be highly similar to the immunity acquired from having had covid infection. So merely being exposed to covid and it's use of the placenta spike, would be the source of infertility – marshal craft Jan 11 '21 at 05:47
  • I see absolutely no, deviation in the two types of immunity, where one would attack the placenta and the other would not? – marshal craft Jan 11 '21 at 05:48
  • It could be just as well, that the commonality in proteins, is on too low of a level, that the immune system doesn't use. – marshal craft Jan 11 '21 at 05:50

1 Answers1

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I believe that I can answer my own question, since user "Fizz" already answered almost the same question that I posted on medicalsciences.stackexchange.com - Is there a reason to be anxious about claim that COVID-19 vaccine could turn out to be inducing infertility in females?

According to experts quoted by AP:

while syncytin-1 and the spike protein broadly share some features, they are quite different in the details that antibodies recognize.

Aside from the fact that COVID-19’s spike protein and syncytin-1 are viral fusion proteins that cause membrane fusion, they are not related at all, Dutch said.

also:

We don’t see infertility with the flu vaccine and that is also targeting a viral fusion protein in a similar way that the spike is a viral fusion protein of the coronavirus

source

It seems like the risk of said infertility is improbable and I personally believe that such statement was made just to harm vaccine effort and spread fear, especially when we take into account the fact that authors of this statement were spreading misinformation about COVID in the past.

Head to the post on medicalsciences that I linked above, for more thorough answer.

Learner
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    Key thing to me, and most bottom line, is if this were even true, it would be central to covid 19 and not the vaccine. – marshal craft Jan 11 '21 at 05:52
  • @marshalcraft, well, and what reality says after 1.5 year after the vaccination campaign has started? Just curious. – dEmigOd Jul 09 '22 at 04:55
  • That is true point, in hind site there also not really a constructive input however. One that should be made though. – marshal craft Jul 15 '22 at 08:20