---
title: "COVID‑19 vaccines increase the risk of autoimmune encephalitis by 79 times compared with flu shots"
claim_id: "rXVaiJVVqHz7gZ2BbOYP"
validity: 0
model: accounts/fireworks/models/kimi-k2p6
---

# Claim: COVID‑19 vaccines increase the risk of autoimmune encephalitis by 79 times compared with flu shots

Verdict: 0%
Model: Kimi K2.6
Checked on: 23/07/2026

## Verdict explanation

- No credible evidence supports the claim that COVID-19 vaccines increase the risk of autoimmune encephalitis by 79 times compared with flu shots.
- A formal disproportionality analysis of VAERS data found that, compared with recipients of other vaccines (including flu vaccines), COVID-19 vaccine recipients were over 70% **less** likely to report a neuroautoimmune adverse event rather than a non-neuroautoimmune adverse event (reporting odds ratio 0.292, p \< 0.0001), and the excess of immune-mediated encephalitis cases was negligible (fewer than 0.25 additional cases out of over 1.3 million reports)[^1].
- Raw VAERS comparisons are misleading because VAERS is a passive reporting system that cannot establish causation or support direct vaccine-to-vaccine comparisons; differences in reporting rates, public awareness, and doses administered make simple counts invalid[^2].
- Large population-based studies found the incidence of encephalitis after COVID-19 vaccination to be approximately 1.9 cases per million doses, and a cohort study using primary-care databases recorded a standardized incidence ratio of 0.79 (below the expected background rate) for encephalitis after the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine[^3][^4].
- The “79 times” figure appears to originate from a flawed, unsourced interpretation of passive surveillance data rather than from rigorous epidemiological analysis.

**Overall validity**: 0%

[^1]:
    [VAERS data reveals no increased risk of ...](https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.13.21258851v1.full-text)

[^2]:
    [Misleading to compare the safety of COVID-19 and flu vaccines based solely on VAERS reports; VAERS reports alone cannot demonstrate that a vaccine caused an adverse event - Science Feedback](https://science.feedback.org/claimreview/misleading-to-compare-the-safety-of-covid-19-and-flu-vaccines-based-solely-on-vaers-reports-vaers-reports-alone-cannot-demonstrate-that-a-vaccine-caused-an-adverse-event)

[^3]:
    [COVID-19 vaccines and neurological disorders - PMC - NIH](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12287643)

[^4]:
    [Chapter: 3 Neurologic Conditions and COVID-19 Vaccines](https://www.nationalacademies.org/read/27746/chapter/5)

## Sources using this claim (1)

- [🚨CDC DATA REVEAL COVID-19 "VACCINES" TRIGGERED 146 NEUROLOGICAL & PSYCHIATRIC SAFETY SIGNALS Over…](/source/fb:reel:2083414299267686) — 0% — 39 views