In 2016, the ATOMKI collaboration announced [PRL {\bf 116}, 042501 (2016)] observing an unexpected enhancement of the $e^+-e^-$ pair production signal in one of the $^8$Be nuclear transitions induced by an incident proton beam on a $^7$Li target. Many beyond-standard-model physics explanations have subsequently been proposed. One popular theory is that the anomaly is caused by the creation of a protophobic vector boson ($X$) with a mass around 17 MeV [e.g., PRL\ {\bf 117}, 071803 (2016)] in the nuclear transition. We study this hypothesis by deriving an isospin relation between photon and $X$ couplings to nucleons. This allows us to find simple relations between protophobic $X$-production cross sections and those for measured photon production. The net result is that $X$ production is dominated by direct transitions induced by $E1^X$ and $L1^X$ (transverse and longitudinal electric dipoles) and $C1^X$ (charge dipole) without going through any nuclear resonance (i.e. Bremsstrahlung radiation) with a smooth energy dependence that occurs for all proton beam energies above threshold. This contradicts the experimental observations and invalidates the protophobic vector boson explanation.

8 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. Version close to the published: detailed discussions on multipoles and experimental signal (with a new figure) are included