True or False – Deaths reported following COVID-19 vaccinations are no immediate cause for alarm

With more than 85 million people across the globe now fully vaccinated against COVID-19, suggestions that the jab may be causing death among some populations have quickly spread online, undermining inoculation efforts.

Claims that a number of elderly people died as a result of the jab in Norway, for instance, have been debunked by the country’s health officials, who said the deaths were likely to be coincidental. 

Vaccines not more dangerous to Israelis than COVID-19

With nearly half of its population fully vaccinated, Israel has fast become a world leader in the effort to inoculate its citizens against COVID-19.

But on social media and misinformation-spreading news websites, claims that the vaccine may be more dangerous than the disease itself have also gained traction. 

An investigation found that data published by the Israeli health ministry “actually points to the vaccine reducing the likelihood of dying from COVID-19, in both the young and the old”.

“The data showed that the majority of COVID-19 deaths in vaccinated people occurred in those who had received only one dose,” Health Feedback reported.

UK vaccination deaths not the full story

In the UK, reports that more than 400 people have died following a COVID-19 jab are missing some crucial context, fact checkers at Reuters and Full Fact have noted.

Under the UK Government’s “Yellow Card” scheme, information on suspected side effects and adverse reactions to medicines is collected and monitored by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), including those related to COVID-19 vaccines.

According to the latest Yellow Card report, a total of 508 people have died following a COVID-19 vaccine in the UK. But that doesn’t mean the vaccine caused their deaths.

“A high proportion of people vaccinated in the vaccination campaign so far are very elderly, many of whom will also have pre-existing medical condition. Older age and chronic underlying illnesses make it more likely that coincidental adverse events will occur, especially given the millions of people vaccinated.” the MHRA notes in its report.

Japanese death not linked to jab

In a similar misunderstanding of correlation and causation, a claim that a Japanese woman died of a brain haemorrhage in the days after receiving a Pfizer vaccine has been debunked by AFP Fact Check.

According to the fact checkers, posts spread online showed a portion of a news report on the woman’s death, but failed to include the section of the report in which experts clarified that no link had been established between the woman’s death and the vaccine.

As pointed out by AFP Fact Check, the missing section of the news report reads:

“[A Japanese health official] clarified that the vaccine was not linked to the brain haemorrhage of the senior citizen who died, because this is a common cause of death for people within the 40 to 60 age group.”

An official Japanese Government report also “does not implicate Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine in the death”, the fact checkers added.