Did COVID Vaccines Cause More Deaths Than They Saved?

Why do some people think that COVID vaccines caused more deaths than they saved?

The retracted study being laundered through these sites that push misinformation about vaccines is a survey by Steve Kirsh...

The usual suspects...

Did COVID Vaccines Cause More Deaths Than They Saved?

Of course, COVID vaccines have not been found to cause more deaths for each life saved.

COVID vaccines have been found to be safe, with few risks, effective, and very necessary.

"Based on reported COVID‐19 deaths, vaccinations prevented an estimated 14.4 million deaths from COVID‐19 in a year. However, if excess deaths were used, this estimate rose to 19.8 million deaths prevented, equating to a global reduction of 63% in total deaths (19.8 million of 31.4 million) during the first year of COVID‐19 vaccination."

Lives saved by COVID‐19 vaccines

And they have saved millions of lives.

On the other hand, a lot of lives have been lost because of this kind of misinformation about vaccines!

What do we have first? A retracted "study" that try to claim that a lot of excess deaths are caused by COVID vaccines.

A now-retracted narrative review published in the journal Cureus calls for a global moratorium on mRNA COVID-19 shots. The review cited significant increases in serious adverse events among those who received the injections, along with an "unacceptably high harm-to-reward ratio." When factoring in absolute risk and the "number needed to vaccinate" (NNV), a metric used to quantify how many people need to be vaccinated to prevent one additional case of a specific disease, the review found "for every life saved, there were nearly 14 times more deaths caused by the modified mRNA injections."

Study: mRNA COVID Shots Caused More Deaths Than They Saved by Joseph Mercola

For most folks, it will be enough to know that this was a narrative review by a group with known biases against vaccines and not any kind of formal study to know that it didn't really provide evidence that COVID shots caused more deaths than lives saved.

The review was best described as a "a veritable Gish gallop of so many antivax talking points—a veritable 'greatest hits,' if you will—that I can really only hit the 'high points,' if you can call them that."

Detailed reviews of the 'study' are available too though.

Those Excess Non-COVID Deaths

But this retracted narrative review likely isn't the only reason some might be thinking COVID vaccines have killed more people than a natural COVID infection...

In his online review, Mark Skidmore claimed COVID vaccines killed nearly 300,000 people.

There is the retracted online survey, The role of social circle COVID-19 illness and vaccination experiences in COVID-19 vaccination decisions: an online survey of the United States population, by Mark Skidmore. That's the one in which he claimed COVID vaccines killed nearly 300,000 people.

Steve Kirsch asks his followers to report on the deaths of people they know and enter their cause of death, with plenty of prompting of what might have killed them if they weren't already biased enough.

And the seemingly endless online surveys that Steve Kirsch does...

Lastly, there are the claims, of excess non-COVID deaths that we keep seeing that some folks like to blame on COVID vaccines.

These claims are all false:

• Covid-19 Vaccines Did Not Kill 17 Million People. Claims Being Made Are False
• No evidence to link UK excess deaths to COVID-19 vaccines
• No Evidence Excess Deaths Linked to Vaccines, Contrary to Claims Online
• Post exaggerates global deaths, then blames them on the COVID vaccine
• Article misrepresents CDC data, falsely links deaths to COVID vaccines
• Flawed Analysis of New Zealand Data Doesn’t Show COVID-19 Vaccines Killed Millions
• Covid vaccines are not linked to excess deaths, despite what the anti-vaxxers believe
• Report doesn’t prove COVID-19 vaccines caused excess deaths
• Activist Misuses Federal Data to Make False Claim That Covid Vaccines Killed 676,000
• COVID-19 vaccines do not kill more people than they save; FDA experts did not make this false claim
• A four-page, yet to be peer-reviewed paper is not proof that COVID-19 vaccines cause 93% of deaths that occur after inoculation

Sadly, although all of these claims are false, they have some folks thinking that each and every death these days must be related to a COVID vaccine!

"COVID-19 vaccines substantially reduce the risk of dying from COVID-19, and serious side effects are very rare. Excess deaths among working-age adults in 2021 and 2022 were driven by COVID-19 and other factors, not vaccination. Faulty logic underlies claims that vaccines caused mass disability and economic harm."

No Evidence Excess Deaths Linked to Vaccines, Contrary to Claims Online

What is killing people?

COVID, of course, and all of things that used to be deadly before the pandemic, including heart attacks, strokes, accidents, high blood pressure, etc.

And unfortunately, misinformation about COVID and COVID vaccines is still killing people.

More on COVID Vaccine Deaths

• How Many People Have Died After Listening to Bad Advice About COVID?
• Lives saved by COVID‐19 vaccines
• Cureus retracted his article, and now Steve Kirsch is suing
• Steve Kirsch’s “mother of all revelations” about the “deadliness” of COVID-19 vaccines goes poof
• Study laundering: Retracted antivax studies resurrected in fake journals
• Steve Kirsch and the Seduction of Simplicity
• The Anti-Vaccine Documentary Died Suddenly Wants You to Feel, Not Think
• Steve Kirsch makes false claims about vaccine law and risks
• BMC Study Did NOT Prove 217,000 (or 278,000) Americans Died From COVID Vaccines
• The misleading claims of anti-vaccine Steve Kirsch — a review
• Steve Kirsch tries to use debunked anti-vaccine tropes
• A mouse “died suddenly” of “turbo cancer” after COVID-19 vaccination
• Four years after COVID, misinformation still endangers some Americans' health. Here's why.
• Steve Kirsch's False Testimony On COVID-19 Vaccines Goes Viral
• No Evidence Excess Deaths Linked to Vaccines, Contrary to Claims Online