Drs. Chokshi and Katz Reassure Jewish Community: Vaccine is Well-Tested and does not Affect Fertility

By Yehudit Garmaise

    New York City might be low on vaccine supply, but the city’s Department of Health is not letting a moment go to waste as it continues to build more and more vaccine sites and fight misinformation, so that as soon as the city is stocked with vaccines, all New Yorkers are ready to get their shots. 

    “We want to have those conversations and work through people’s questions, whether about the vaccines or the vaccination effort itself,” said Dave A. Chokshi, MD, New York City’s health commissioner this afternoon on a conference call with Jewish reporters. “We want to use this opportunity to help people to get comfortable and to understand how extraordinarily safe the vaccines are.”

     As Dr. Chokshi and Health + Hospitals CEO Mitch Katz Katz aimed to combat misinformation about COVID-19 and the vaccines, BoroPark24 asked the doctors to address the rumors swirling around the community that the vaccines could negatively affect the fertility of men and women: a rumor that Dr. Chokshi said he is hearing about quite a bit.

    “The two vaccines that have been authorized so far are safe, effective, and lifesaving,” Dr Chokshi repeated. “We know this not just because of both vaccines’ large studies that have been done on more than 70,000 people, but also we now have real-world experiences of vaccination across the world.

  “We have no evidence from all of the studies done on the vaccines and the real-world experiences that there is any negative effect on fertility from either of the two vaccines that have been authorized.”

   Of course, Dr Chokski said that the medical profession will have to continue following people who have been vaccinated, but based on the information available right now, as well as decades of experience with other vaccines, he reported  no evidence or indications of harmful effects on fertility. 

    “As a doctor I am recommending that people who are planning to start families get vaccinated because the harms and risks of getting COVID-19 far outweigh any theoretical concerns around fertility,” Dr. Chokshi said. 

      Dr. Chokshi then debunked another reason some Boro Parkers may hesitate to take the one of the COVID vaccines, which is that they fear that the development of the vaccines was rushed.

   “The technology underlying the vaccine has been under development for several years,” Dr. Chokshi said. “So even though the vaccines do represent remarkable scientific breakthroughs, these are vaccines that that have been worked on for years upon years, and they were no shortcuts taken with regards to the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines.

    “Every of them was studied in clinical trials of tens of thousands of people, who were followed for up to two months after getting the vaccination to make sure that we knew about the most likely side effects, as well as the effectiveness of both vaccines.”

Credit: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office.