A Facebook post by Piers Corbyn recently claimed that a Channel 4 documentary “The Anti-Vax Conspiracy” failed to highlight deaths from and adverse reactions to Covid-19 vaccines in the UK. But some of the points he makes are not accurate.

Mr Corbyn claimed that Covid-19 vaccines have caused 859,481 adverse reactions. Slightly fewer—857,323 suspected reactions—were reported to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) by people who had received the vaccine when the post was made. However, it does not mean the vaccines are necessarily the cause of these reactions. 

The post also claimed that Covid-19 vaccines have caused 1,213 deaths. Although Mr Corbyn gave the correct number of deaths reported within seven days of vaccination, the MHRA’s report states: “The majority of these reports were in elderly people or people with underlying illness.” The MHRA also states that individual reviews have (so far) found no link between these deaths and the vaccine.

Mr Corbyn also claimed people are more likely to die from Covid-19 vaccines than from Covid-19. This is untrue, as at least 123,647 people have already died of Covid in England and Wales so far. Even if everyone in England and Wales had been infected with Covid, this would still mean that people are much more likely to die from Covid-19 than from being vaccinated.

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