COVID-19 vaccination reduces the risk of death from COVID-19. Social media posts have misused survey data and adverse events reports to falsely claim that COVID-19 vaccines have killed more people than COVID-19. But serious adverse events resulting from vaccination, including deaths, are rare.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than 1.1 million Americans have died from COVID-19. COVID-19 vaccines have substantially reduced the risk of severe disease and death, according to multiple studies, even as more transmissible and immune-evasive variants have led to widespread infections.
Meanwhile, the vaccines have a strong safety record and have only been linked to serious adverse events and deaths in rare cases. Studies of mortality after vaccination provide reassurance that COVID-19 vaccination does not increase a person’s risk of death.
Despite these facts, anti-vaccine advocates continue to baselessly inflate the prevalence of deaths caused by COVID-19 vaccines, while also minimizing COVID-19 deaths. Most recently, posts have falsely claimed that more people have died from COVID-19 vaccines than from COVID-19.
One popular post shared the headline of an article from a notorious spreader of misinformation called the People’s Voice, which falsely claimed: “New Study Reveals Covid mRNA Jabs Killed ‘3.5X More Americans Than Virus Itself.’” The People’s Voice has a history of sharing COVID-19 and vaccine misinformation.
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