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FACT BRIEF

Did the CDC report there are nearly twice as many vaccine-related deaths so far in 2021 as all the vaccine deaths this past decade?

By Dana Ford
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NO

The CDC has made no such statement.

An article on social media that makes the claim misuses the unverified material from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System as its source. Anyone can submit a report to VAERS, and those reports are not sufficient to establish whether an adverse event, such as death, was caused by a vaccine.

From December 14, 2020, through March 29, 2021, more than 145 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered in the United States. According to the CDC VAERS received 2,509 reports of death (0.0017%) among people who got the shot.

Although the CDC co-manages VAERS with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, it is misleading to call VAERS data "CDC data." VAERS reports can be filed by anyone and may include information that is incomplete, inaccurate or coincidental. VAERS is intended to be an early warning system, not a precise measure.

See a full discussion of this at Lead Stories
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
US Department of Health and Human Services Guide to Interpreting VAERS Data
Centers for Disease Control Selected Adverse Events Reported after COVID-19 Vaccination
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR
Lead Stories
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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About fact briefs published on Gigafact
Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.