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Thursday, Apr. 8, 2021

Did the CDC report 1,739 deaths from the COVID-19 vaccine?

Dana Ford, Lead Stories
no

There's no public evidence the vaccine caused deaths as claimed in an article published on social media.

The claim cites the government's rough list of unverified reports: Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. Anyone can report events to VAERS, and the reports—on their own—cannot be used to say whether a vaccine caused a particular adverse event.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention follows up on any VAERS report of death to determine whether it was caused by the COVID-19 vaccine or was coincidental.

According to the CDC, "A review of available clinical information including death certificates, autopsy, and medical records revealed no evidence that vaccination contributed to patient deaths."

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Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by newsrooms in the Gigafact network.

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Lead Stories is a fact checking and debunking website at the intersection of big data and journalism that launched in 2015. It scouts for trending stories, images, videos and posts that contain false information in order to fact check them as quickly as possible. It actively monitors the fake-news ecosystem and doesn’t wait for reader tips or reports before getting started on a story.

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