Skip to content

Thursday, May. 6, 2021

Did a federal agency document 3,848 deaths due to COVID-19 vaccinations?

Dean Miller, Lead Stories
no

As of May 5, 2021, CDC medical experts had not documented a single fatality caused by COVID-19 vaccines among the 107 million Americans who are fully vaccinated.

An article published online misinterprets and misstates the government's rough list of unverified reports collected by the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). 

Anyone can submit a report to VAERS. The CDC monitors incoming items, and if patterns emerge, investigates them.

VAERS reports are unverified and, according to the CDC, may include information that is incomplete, inaccurate or coincidental. The CDC makes it clear that one cannot assume deaths listed on the VAERS website are connected to the COVID-19 vaccine.

The VAERS database is a hodgepodge of anecdotal information, not a library of fully investigated cases. It helps the CDC and FDA monitor the rollout of a new vaccine by revealing patterns. 

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

About fact briefs

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 Gigafact contributor publications.

See all fact briefs

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.

Learn More

Latest Fact Briefs

Be a Friend of facts

Help us fund more great fact briefs like this one.