Fact-checking Dr. Stock’s COVID-19 claims at the Mt. Vernon school board meeting

THE QUESTION

Is the coronavirus “spread by aerosol particles which are small enough to go through every mask?”

Stock made this claim about 15 minutes into the school board meeting.

THE SOURCES

• Dr. Payal Kohli, assistant clinical professor of medicine at University of Colorado Anschutz medical campus
• The New England Journal of Medicine
• Multiple studies referenced by Dr. Stock
• Multiple studies cited by the CDC

THE ANSWER

This is partly true, but needs context to prevent correct information from yielding a false conclusion. COVID-19 can be transmitted through larger droplets, or they can “dehydrate and linger as ‘droplet nuclei’ in the air where they behave like an aerosol,” according to the New England Journal of Medicine. The aerosols could still pass through a mask, but masks slow the spread of the coronavirus.

WHAT WE FOUND

Dr. Payal Kohli at the University of Colorado Anschutz medical campus told VERIFY the claims Stock made were partly true.

“There’s two ways in which the virus spreads through the air. One is through large droplets, these are large droplets when we talk or laugh or sing, that small little bits of saliva come out, those usually tend to fall kind of closer to the ground. The other is the smaller aerosols,” Kohli said.

“Think of it like a suspended virus particle in the air, almost like smoke, and it just kind of floats around. So the simple cloth masks are actually quite effective at preventing droplet transmission, because they catch those droplets, number one, so they prevent you from emitting them out to somebody else. And then number two, they serve as a barrier of protection from somebody else receiving those droplets,” Kohli said.

“Now, just like with cigarette smoke, you could be wearing a mask and still smell the cigarette smoke because those aerosols, which can suspend in the air, can get through the simple surgical mask. But the N-95 respirators do offer superior protection against both aerosols as well as those droplets,” she continued.

Stock provided the Mt. Vernon school board with studies that, he said, support his contention that masks do not provide protection against the transmission of tiny COVID-19 particles. VERIFY reviewed those studies. While some do raise questions about the effectiveness of masks, others are inconclusive. One of the studies cited by Stock has been retracted by the medical journal that published it because the publisher determined the study “misquotes and selectively cites published papers.” After a broader review of scientific studies, the journal reported high quality masks worn properly do effectively reduce the transmission of COVID-19.

Other studies cited by the CDC came to the same conclusion: properly-worn masks are effective in slowing and significantly reducing the spread of coronavirus.

THE QUESTION

 Can COVID-19 vaccines cause the immune system to “become deranged”?

Stock made this claim about 16 minutes into the school board meeting.

THE SOURCES

• Dr. Payal Kohli, assistant clinical professor of medicine at University of Colorado Anschutz medical campus
• U.S. Food & Drug Administration
• Dr. Gabriel Bosslet, Indiana University School of Medicine

THE ANSWER

Immune derangement is the “small risk” of your immune system “misbehaving” after getting a vaccine, Kohli told VERIFY. There is a very small chance of this happening, and can happen with any vaccine.

WHAT WE FOUND

Kohli said in a very small percentage of people, the immune system can “overreact or misbehave slightly” after receiving a vaccination. For example, she said, a very small percentage of people who received a vaccination suffered from auto-immune conditions or myocarditis.

“But the likelihood of that happening, particularly with this vaccine, which has now been given to 2.3 billion people, and we've only seen a very, very, very tiny signal occurring in select populations is very, very low,” Kohli said.

According to a July 13 release from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, after 12.5 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines were administered, there were 100 cases of Guillain–Barré Syndrome (GBS) reported.

“Each year in the United States, an estimated 3,000 to 6,000 people develop GBS. Most people fully recover from the disorder. GBS has also been observed at an increased rate associated with certain vaccines, including certain seasonal influenza vaccines and a vaccine to prevent shingles,” the release said.

“No similar signal has been identified with the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines. FDA continues to work with its partner in vaccine safety surveillance, the CDC, to monitor reports of GBS following vaccination with the Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine. Importantly, the FDA has evaluated the available information for the Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine and continues to find the known and potential benefits clearly outweigh the known and potential risks,” the FDA said.

Dr. Gabriel Bosslet, an ICU physician at Indiana University Health, calls Stock’s comments about immune derangement caused by the COVID-19 vaccine “nonsense” backed by no data.

“We have a natural study of billions of people in the world who've gotten this vaccine who don't have deranged immune systems. I can tell you they don't have deranged immune systems because they're not in the hospital with COVID,” he said.

THE QUESTION

Can COVID-19 cause antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) or vaccine-enhanced disease (VED), which would cause a vaccinated person to have a more severe disease if caught?

Stock made this claim about 17 minutes into the school board meeting.

THE SOURCES

• Nada A. Fadul, MD, University of Nebraska
• Dr. Gabriel T. Bosslet, Indiana University School of Medicine
• Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS)

THE ANSWER

There is no evidence to support claims a vaccinated person catches a more severe case of the coronavirus.

WHAT WE FOUND

Antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) is “extremely rare” and occurs when “certain antibodies make it easier for viruses to get into cells,” according to University of Nebraska Physician Nada A. Fadul.

Fadul addressed claims ADE is associated with the COVID-19 vaccine in a July article published on the university’s website. Fadul said if the COVID-19 vaccine caused ADE, people who are vaccinated would have more severe disease.

“This is not happening. On the contrary, people who are vaccinated typically have very mild disease or none at all,” Fadul said.

Dr. Gabriel Bosslet said if Stock made these claims, he doesn’t understand ADE or is purposely trying to mislead people.

“It doesn't happen with this vaccine. How do we know? It's quite simple. It doesn't happen with this vaccine because if it happened with this vaccine, people who were previously vaccinated when they got COVID-19 would get far sicker than if they'd never been vaccinated, the hospital through that wall would be filled with vaccinated people with severe disease,” Bosslet told 13News.

“That is not what we're seeing. The hospitals are not filled with vaccinated people. The hospitals are filled almost exclusively with people who have not had the vaccine. And so this notion of antibody-dependent enhancement sounds super smart because it does exist. But to say that it happens with this vaccine is either a gross misunderstanding of the term in general, or just frank disinformation to scare people.”

According to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), there has not been a single case of ADE with the COVID-19 vaccines.

THE QUESTION

Is it true vaccines do not stop infection?

Stock made this claim about 18 minutes into the school board meeting, when he said “no vaccine … ever stops infection."

THE SOURCES

• Dr. Payal Kohli, assistant clinical professor of medicine at University of Colorado Anschutz medical campus
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Pfizer-BioNTech
• Moderna
• Dr. Gabriel T. Bosslet, Indiana University School of Medicine
• Dr. Rob Klinestiver, medical director of pulmonary and respiratory services at Hancock Regional Health

THE ANSWER

Stock’s claim that no vaccine ever “stops infection” needs context. There isn’t a single vaccine that is 100% efficacious, meaning they stop infection some of the time, but not all of the time.

WHAT WE FOUND

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “all COVID-19 vaccines currently available in the United States are effective at preventing COVID-19 as seen in clinical trial settings,” and research shows growing evidence “mRNA COVID-19 vaccines offer similar protection in real world conditions.”

But the vaccines aren’t 100% effective. In a release from Pfizer-BioNTech, the vaccine was 95.4% effective against COVID-19. Moderna announced the vaccine was “greater than 90% efficacy against cases of COVID-19 and more than 95% against severe cases.” The CDC reported the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was 66.3% effective in clinical trials.

“What's interesting about vaccine efficacy is that it doesn't function in a bubble. So vaccine efficacy is highly dependent upon how much infection you have in your community,” Kohli said. “So when you have high rates of infection in the community, the vaccines don't work as well. And then when the infection rates are lower, the vaccine efficacy in terms of preventing infection goes up. It's also obviously dependent on our behaviors.”

Bosslet said “stopping infection” is not the main goal of the vaccine. “We are not trying to eliminate the virus,” he said. “I don't think anyone thinks that's going to be the case. This virus is with us for a long time. What we're trying to do is prevent hospitalizations and deaths. And these vaccines are as close to perfect at doing that as is humanly possible.”

Of the nearly 3 million people fully vaccinated in Indiana, only 185 have been hospitalized with COVID-19. That’s .006%. Deaths are even lower.

“We have not lost anybody at our hospital that’s been vaccinated,” said Dr. Rob Klinestiver, a pulmonologist who serves as medical director of pulmonary and respiratory services at Hancock Regional Health. The hospital is in the same county where Dr. Stock is trying to convince a school board that vaccines don’t work.

The pulmonologist says Stock’s claim that vaccines do not stop infection is dangerous. He says all the people now dying from COVID at his hospital – some as young as 35 years old -- share the same story.

“These people dying now are in the prime of their life and the only thing they have in common is they are unvaccinated,” Klinestiver told 13News, adding that he believes Stock’s comments to the school board were irresponsible. “I’d like to extend an invitation to him to walk with me through my ICU and hear the stories about each one of these patients who are unvaccinated.”

THE QUESTION

Is Ivermectin, Vitamin-D and/or Zinc an approved treatment for COVID-19?

Stock made this claim about 20 minutes into the video, when he said he had successfully treated 15 patients with this cocktail of drugs, vitamins and minerals.

THE SOURCES

• Dr. Payal Kohli, assistant clinical professor of medicine at University of Colorado Anschutz medical campus
• U.S. Food & Drug Administration
• Dr. Gabriel T. Bosslet, Indiana University School of Medicine
• Indiana State Department of Health
• Regenstrief Institute
• Biopharmaceutical company Merck
• The World Health Organization
• The Infectious Diseases Society of America

THE ANSWER

No, that treatment plan has not been approved by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) or the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), and studies to determine if the drugs and supplements work are inconclusive.

WHAT WE FOUND

Ivermectin is not approved for use in treating or preventing COVID-19 in humans, the FDA warned.

“Ivermectin tablets are approved at very specific doses for some parasitic worms, and there are topical (on the skin) formulations for head lice and skin conditions like rosacea. Ivermectin is not an anti-viral (a drug for treating viruses),” according to the FDA.

Kohli said zinc and Vitamin D can be used to bulk up immune function, but there isn’t scientific evidence that exists to date that supports the use of those two drugs, along with ivermectin, to treat COVID-19.

“A few clinical trials have explored the possibility that supplements may be effective. And, unfortunately, most of the evidence is unconvincing,” added Harvard University doctor Robert Shmerling, specifically mentioning Zinc and Vitamin-D in his analysis.

So what should be made of Stock’s statement that he successfully treated 15 COVID-19 patients with an Ivermectin, Vitamin-D, Zinc cocktail, and none of those patients were hospitalized?

Not much, according to Bosslet.

“15 patients? I mean, if I took 15 patients in my clinic who all came in with COVID-19, the stats are that none of those people…would be likely to progress to severe disease,” the ICU doctor said.

According to data from the Indiana State Department of Health and the Regenstrief Institute, about 794,000 Indiana residents have been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of August 11, and 63,628 of those Hoosiers required hospitalization for their infection – about 8% of all COVID-cases in the state.

Based on that percentage, roughly 1 in every 15 Hoosiers diagnosed with COVID-19 would be expected to be hospitalized, although it would not be unusual for there to be 0 hospitalizations within a group of 15 patients.

“Low Vitamin-D levels have been associated with more severe COVID disease. But when we've given Vitamin-D to people with COVID, it doesn't tend to make their course better. We've studied this,” Bosslet told 13News. “I don't think anybody should ever be Vitamin-D deficient, but it's not going to cure your COVID. And if you're counting on that, you're sorely mistaken.”

As far as Ivermectin, VERIFY has investigated this issue before, and the drug is not currently recommended for the treatment of COVID-19 – even by the company that manufactures it. Last month, drug company Merck, which makes the brand-name of Ivermectin, told VERIFY it stands by its February statement that said there is “no meaningful evidence” the drug helps patients with Covid-19.

Meanwhile, both the World Health Organization and the Infectious Diseases Society of America advise avoiding the drug outside of clinical trials. According to IDSA, "Well-designed, adequately powered, and well-executed clinical trials are needed to inform decisions on treating COVID-19 with Ivermectin."

THE QUESTION

Is it true that people who have recovered from COVID-19 “get no benefit from vaccinations at all?”

Stock made this claim about 21 minutes into the video.

THE SOURCES

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Dr. Gabriel T. Bosslet, Indiana University School of Medicine

THE ANSWER

No, a recent study in the United States shows individuals who had COVID-19 and who have not received a COVID-19 vaccine are at a higher risk of contracting the virus again.

WHAT WE FOUND

Dr. Stock said he provided the school board with a study that shows “people who have recovered from COVID-19 infection actually get no benefit from vaccination at all: no reduction in symptoms, no reduction in hospitalization, and suffer two to four times the rate of side effects if they are subsequently vaccinated.” After reviewing the studies cited by Stock, it is not clear what research he is referencing.

But a new study out of Kentucky, released by the CDC in early August, shows residents who had COVID-19 and who did not get a vaccine are 2.3 times more likely to be reinfected with the virus.

“All the studies are that people who previously had COVID-19, when you measure antibody levels before and after the vaccine, it goes up,” said Bosslet. “So I have no clue where [Dr. Stock’s] data comes from. And frankly, that defies all logic.”

The ICU doctor said he is skeptical of other doctors who claim to know more than state and federal health agencies.

“What I would tell people is: if you hear stuff like this, that runs completely counter to everything that the scientists and physicians have been telling you for the last 18 months, you need to talk to your doctor and bounce this off of other sources…you need to go and talk to other physicians, not just people who are going to confirm your prior beliefs.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: The combination of Ivermectin, Vitamin-D and/or Zinc was referred to as an antibiotic cocktail in a previous version of this story. The reference was corrected to make the description of the cocktail more accurate.