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12-10-2025
SEOUL: Claims that a study conducted by South Korean researchers “proves” a causal link between COVID-19 vaccines and an increased risk of up to six types of cancer have gone viral in recent days. These claims caused a wave of misinformation, with prominent figures and platforms using their professional titles to lend credibility to them.
Who claimed the study showed a link between vaccines and cancer?
Social media accounts cited a study titled “1-year risks of cancers associated with COVID-19 vaccination: a large population-based cohort study in South Korea”, published in Biomarker Research, an open access academic journal. The study used statistics from the South Korean health insurance database and found a pattern; individuals who received the vaccine were also more likely to be diagnosed with certain types of cancer within one year. This statistical correlation was quickly misrepresented as definitive “proof” of a direct risk.
A misinformation campaign focused on spreading specific, alarming numbers to stir panic, with influential figures using their professional credentials to amplify the message.
For instance, the platform Vigilant Fox, which defines itself as a media company founded by a “healthcare specialist turned independent journalist”, promoted the study, claiming it showed a 27 percent overall increase in cancer risk. It further listed exaggerated increases for specific cancers, such as a 53 percent rise in lung cancer and a 69 percent increase in prostate cancer.
Then, Nicolas Hulscher, MPH, who identifies himself as an “epidemiologist”, went further, falsely claiming that the vaccine increases the risk of “seven types of cancer”, linking the study to others without justification to assert that these cancers “all increased significantly after vaccination”.
Peter A McCullough, MD, PhD, whose tweet supporting the claim received more than half a million views, and Dr Aseem Malhotra, a cardiologist and activist, both reinforced these claims.
Malhotra stated that the South Korean study was “important and concerning”, thus adding undue “medical” weight to the unfounded allegations.
Additionally, the Children’s Health Defense organization, which campaigns against childhood health epidemics, adopted this misleading narrative and published a report titled All COVID Vaccines Increase Cancer Risk, New Study Concludes.
What did they get wrong?
Al Jazeera’s fact-checking agency, Sanad, examined the original study and discovered that the promoters of this misinformation were omitting a key phrase from the excerpts they cited: “epidemiological association without causal relationship”.
In scientific terms, an “epidemiological association” indicates a statistical relationship or common pattern between two events, without implying that one causes the other.
To illustrate, if ice cream sales rise in the summer while drowning incidents also increase, there is an epidemiological correlation, but this does not mean that ice cream causes drowning; the common cause is warm weather causing people to eat ice creams and go swimming.
The manipulation occurs when this correlation is twisted into “definitive causality”, the trap influencers fell into. They ignored the scientific warnings and promoted the claim that vaccines “increase the risk”.
The true explanation likely lies in a phenomenon known as “surveillance bias”. People who were more inclined to receive the vaccine were often more diligent about medical check-ups and regular screenings, meaning cancer was diagnosed earlier not caused by the vaccine. (Int’l News Desk)
