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FACT BRIEF

Does a German study show that a higher COVID-19 vaccination rate results in higher death rates?

By Sarah Schmidt
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NO

A German politician had presented a paper in a debate that allegedly found that German states with a higher vaccination rate showed a higher excess mortality during six weeks between September and October 2021. 

Ute Bergner, a member of a small political party known for its anti-vaccine and anti-mask stance, used the paper to push back against vaccine mandates.

The authors of the study, two statisticians, have since backpedaled on the results and claim that their paper had only been intended as an internal "note." 

A closer look at the paper revealed methodological flaws: A statistics professor said the paper was on a level of claiming a correlation between "storks and births." 

The authors later conceded that there is no statistically significant correlation.

See a full discussion of this at Lead Stories
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
Tagesschau (ARD television, Germany) Kein Beweis für Zusammenhang ('Statistics with questionable methods')
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.