Skip to main content

Fact check: Canadian children's hospital didn't expand for rare COVID vaccine side effect

Ella Lee   | Paste BN
play
Show Caption

The claim: A Canadian children's hospital is expanding in anticipation of COVID-19 vaccine side effects in children

Some social media users are claiming a Canadian children's hospital plans to grow one department to combat a rare COVID-19 vaccine side effect. 

"They expanded the cardiac unit at Sick kids hospital in anticipation of side effects when rolling out the (vaccine) for 5-11 year olds," reads a Feb. 4 Facebook post, shared more than 200 times in a week. "And you're pissed about honking trucks?"

The Facebook post, which alludes to a protest against vaccine mandates in Canada, is a screenshot of a tweet shared Feb. 2, which accumulated thousands of likes and retweets. But the post gets the facts wrong, as independent fact-checking organizations have reported.

A spokesperson for the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, branded as SickKids, confirmed the hospital isn't expanding for children who experience myocarditis or pericarditis, a rare side effect of some COVID-19 vaccines. The hospital is constructing a new education and training center. 

Follow us on Facebook! Like our page to get updates throughout the day on our latest debunks

The Twitter user who originally shared the claim, @savyrecords, said the post refers to "expanded protocols and policies released by Sick Kids months before rolling out the vaccine."

Paste BN reached out to Facebook and Twitter users who shared the post for comment.

Children's hospital isn't expanding cardiology unit

Two types of heart inflammation – myocarditis and pericarditis – are side effects of the COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Only Pfizer's vaccine is authorized for Americans younger than 18.

Myocarditis and pericarditis have been primarily observed in young people. But the side effects are rare – and most patients who are treated for them recover quickly, according to public health agencies.

SickKids "has not expanded services within the Division of Cardiology for concerns related to myocarditis or pericarditis following COVID-19 immunization," Sarah Warr, a spokesperson for the hospital, told Paste BN in an email.

Cardiac conditions like myocarditis and pericarditis are more common after a COVID-19 infection than after vaccination. Warr said children with myocarditis or pericarditis after a COVID-19 infection are accommodated within the hospital's existing cardiology clinic.

"Patient volumes in our Division of Cardiology have remained consistent from before the COVID-19 pandemic to now," she said. 

Fact check: Most of the world is vaccinated against COVID-19, contrary to online claims

SickKids is undergoing construction, but the new building has nothing to do with COVID-19 vaccines.

In October 2019, the children's hospital, which is affiliated with the University of Toronto, broke ground on its new Patient Support Centre. The 22-story building will be an "education, training and administrative hub," according to a press release, and is set to open in late 2022.

"The Patient Support Centre will house the SickKids Learning Institute, which will support over 1,000 world-class trainees, students and learners annually," the release says. "It will also include a Simulation Centre for hands-on teaching, allowing our healthcare practitioners to continue to provide leading-edge pediatric care to patients."

Our rating: False

Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that a Canadian children's hospital is expanding in anticipation of COVID-19 vaccine side effects in children. A spokesperson for SickKids confirmed the hospital isn't expanding to support patients with myocarditis or pericarditis, which are more common after COVID-19 infection than after vaccination. The hospital is constructing a new education and training center. 

Our fact-check sources:

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here.

Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

Facebook Twitter Email