Nasal Flu Vaccine Does Not Spread Flu
The Claim
Some social media posts have made the claim that the nasal flu vaccine, also known as flu mist, spreads the flu.
News posted on
Emerging story
In the late summer 2020, news has circulated and gone viral on social media concerning the nasal flu vaccine, which is scheduled to be sprayed into the nostrils of millions of children in the UK this fall. Conspiracy theories abound regarding the vaccine, including that the vaccine itself carries a risk of spreading the flu itself, which compounded with fears of COVID represent a grave perceived threat to families in the UK.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar’s investigation into this claim reveals it to be false. The Vaccine Knowledge Project, a website managed by the Oxford Vaccine Group, an academic research group within the University of Oxford, says there is no evidence that healthy unvaccinated people can catch the flu from a vaccinated person. They report that the way vaccines work is by introducing a live but greatly weakened version of the virus into the child, which is unable to propagate itself inside the child’s body and which does not survive long outside the child. That way, the child’s immune system can create a response to the virus without the virus causing the flu or infecting others.
