One of the many persistent falsehoods spread on social media about the vaccines for COVID-19 is that they cause infertility.

According to experts from John Hopkins Medicine, the likely origin of the myth is a false report that arose on social media claiming the coronavirus and the vaccines against it contain a spike protein called syncytin-1. This protein is vital in the development and attachment of the placenta during pregnancy, and damage to it can result in miscarriages as well as infertility.

In truth, however, COVID-19’s spike protein and syncytin-1 do not share a similar genetic code, meaning that the vaccines do not include this heightened risk for infertility.

In an article