Robust evidence indicates that COVID-19 vaccines, which have been available to the public since late 2020, reduce the risk of severe illness and death. Real-world data collected to date demonstrates that COVID-19 vaccines are safe and don’t increase the overall mortality risk among vaccinated individuals compared to unvaccinated individuals.
COVID-19 vaccines effectively reduce the risk of serious illness and death from COVID-19. Epidemiological data shows that unvaccinated people have died at a higher rate from the disease, even taking into account factors such as the age of the population or the proportion of vaccinated and unvaccinated people in the population. Research estimates that hundreds of thousands of unvaccinated people who died from COVID-19 would have survived had they been vaccinated.
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine manufacturers, regulatory agencies, and governments have collaborated to produce COVID-19 vaccines. Starting with a few hundred million doses in January 2021, production increased to over 12 billion doses by the end of that same year. This increase was enabled by expanding production facilities and initiating certain components of manufacturing efforts before vaccine authorization.
Since 2021, certain COVID-19 vaccines, specifically the viral vector COVID-19 vaccines, have been linked to a rare blood clotting problem known as thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome. But COVID-19 mRNA vaccines aren’t associated with the same risk. COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective at reducing the risk of severe disease and death. Getting COVID-19 is associated with a much greater risk of blood clots than getting the vaccine. On balance, the vaccines’ benefits outweigh their risks.
COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective in preventing severe illness, hospitalization, and death from the virus. They’ve been rigorously tested via clinical trials and are routinely monitored by health agencies for safety. While rare side effects such as myocarditis (inflammation of the heart) and blood clotting disorders have been reported, these events are uncommon. COVID-19 itself is more likely to increase the risk of heart inflammation and blood clotting than vaccines. The benefits of vaccination outweigh the potential risks.
COVID-19 vaccines are effective at reducing the risk of severe disease. Many epidemiological studies show that they also effectively reduce the risk of dying from COVID-19 or COVID-19 complications. Booster vaccination helps bolster waning vaccine-induced immunity and provides updated protection adapted to new SARS-CoV-2 variants.
COVID-19 vaccines are the safest way of reducing the likelihood of getting severely ill or dying from COVID-19. However, they are associated with some risks; for example, viral vector vaccines are associated with rare cases of blood clotting, and mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are associated with a slightly increased risk of heart inflammation in young males. But COVID-19 itself carries a much higher risk of developing blood clots and cardiovascular problems than vaccination. By lowering these risks, the benefits of COVID-19 vaccination outweigh the small risk of serious side effects.
mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are associated with a slightly elevated risk of myocarditis in young males. However, such cases are very rare and not associated with an increased risk of death. COVID-19 itself is a much more likely cause of hospitalization and death from myocarditis and other complications. Therefore, vaccinating is the best way of reducing these potential risks, a benefit that far exceeds the low likelihood of developing myocarditis after vaccination.
As of September 2024, COVID-19 was responsible for 1.2 million deaths in the U.S., with the majority of those deaths occurring during Biden’s presidency. However, death toll figures under both the Trump and Biden administrations aren’t directly comparable because Biden has been in office for a longer period of time since the virus emerged compared to Trump. Once we account for the duration of each administration, the weekly COVID-19 mortality rate was lower on average during the period coinciding with Biden’s presidency.
InfoWars founder Alex Jones was court-ordered to pay nearly 1.5 billion dollars in damages to the families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting. This lawsuit is unrelated to the COVID-19 pandemic. Health and justice authorities asked Jones to cease selling unproven COVID-19 remedies on his website.
