Vaccines train the immune system to efficiently respond to one specific pathogen; they don’t prevent our immune system from combating other pathogens or cancer. COVID-19 vaccines are effective at protecting against death and severe COVID-19 and aren’t responsible for the excess mortality observed in 2022.
Despite claims made on social media, a study published by the peer-reviewed journal BMC Infectious Diseases doesn’t actually provide the necessary scientific evidence for its claim that nearly 300,000 people died from COVID-19 vaccines. This estimate is based on a survey of about 2,800 people, but doesn’t involve verifying the accuracy of survey responses by examining medical records. As such, the study doesn’t offer a reliable estimate of deaths related to the COVID-19 vaccines.
There’s no question that countries in the Western world continued to see excess deaths in 2022, despite COVID-19 vaccines having been introduced in late 2020 to combat the pandemic. Vaccine skeptics have expressed the view that COVID-19 vaccination is to blame for these excess deaths. However, published studies show that vaccinated people aren’t more likely to die than unvaccinated people. This view is therefore inconsistent with the scientific evidence. Various other issues, such as long COVID and strain on healthcare systems, are more plausible explanations for excess mortality.
Sweetgum contains small amounts of shikimic acid, which is the starting point in the industrial manufacture of Tamiflu, a drug for treating influenza. However, there is no evidence that shikimic acid has the same effect. Tamiflu targets a specific protein found in flu viruses, so it doesn’t work against the virus that causes COVID-19, and neither does shikimic acid.
Studies and epidemiological data show that COVID-19 vaccination isn’t associated with a higher risk of death. On the contrary, given that COVID-19 is a significant cause of excess deaths, vaccination would help to reduce excess deaths by reducing people’s risk of developing severe disease.
mRNA from COVID-19 vaccines doesn’t alter DNA because vaccine mRNA remains outside the cell nucleus, where DNA is stored. Furthermore, mRNA is unstable and quickly degraded after providing the instructions for producing a piece of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. mRNA vaccines cannot be administered to people via their diet. Even if part of the mRNA vaccine is retained in an animal, mRNA is chemically unstable and cannot remain intact after contact with stomach acid. Hence claims that people will be forcibly vaccinated through the food supply are scientifically implausible.
On 6 January 2023, Children’s Health Defense published an article by Joseph Mercola claiming that “Cancer rates have increased since the introduction of the COVID-19 shots” and that “COVID-19 boosters may be causing aggressive metastatic cancers”. According to the social media analytics tool Buzzsumo, the article received more than 15,000 engagements on social media platforms, … Continued
Excess deaths in the U.K. remain well below the peaks during the COVID-19 pandemic before the vaccines were widely available. It is difficult to precisely define the causes of the recent rise in deaths, however pressure on health services and delays in treatment due to the pandemic are significant factors. The COVID-19 vaccines have been shown to be very safe, only causing heart inflammation in extremely rare cases.
Multiple pieces of evidence show that COVID-19 vaccination doesn’t increase the risk of death. Like all medical interventions, the COVID-19 vaccines carry side effects, but most of these are mild and short-lived. Certain COVID-19 vaccines are associated with an increased risk of heart inflammation or blood clots, but these risks are smaller than those associated with COVID-19 itself.
Multiple peer-reviewed published studies have shown that the benefits of COVID-19 vaccination outweigh its risks. Benefits from vaccination take longer to appear compared to harms, which usually appear within the first six weeks following vaccination. Consequently, studies that aim to reliably compare the risks and benefits of vaccination require time to obtain a complete picture.
