If you want to receive our articles from T Verifica or send us topics about which you have doubts so that we can verify them, contact us via WhatsApp
by clicking on this link
.
By Tom Kertsher -
Politifact
A viral image of childhood COVID-19 vaccines makes a distressing and false claim: "Children are 50 times more likely to die from COVID-19 vaccines than from coronavirus."
Those words are attributed to “Dr.
Michael Yeadon, former vice president of Pfizer ”.
The image includes the Pfizer logo, a clown holding cash, and two hands extended toward the money.
[Concern over Latino Child Vaccination Disparities]
The post, shared on Instagram, was flagged as part of Facebook's efforts to combat fake news and misinformation (read more about the Politifact and Facebook alliance).
Child deaths from COVID-19 are rare, although in the United States several hundred children have died from the virus.
However, there is no clear evidence that COVID-19 vaccines have caused any deaths in the country.
On October 29, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted emergency use authorization to Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11, after verifying that it was safe and effective for that age group.
Andre Mattus, 6 1/2, received the COVID-19 vaccine at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle on November 9.
As of Friday, November 19, just over 2 million children between the ages of 5 and 11 have received at least one dose of the vaccine in the U.S. Ted S. Warren / AP
Unsubstantiated claims
The false claim circulating on Instagram stems from an interview Dr. Yeadon gave in June to Steve Bannon, current podcast host and former White House strategist for former President Donald Trump.
Yeadon, who has not worked for Pfizer since 2011, said that young people are not at risk of serious illness from COVID-19: “It is crazy to vaccinate them with something that is actually 50 times more likely to kill them than the virus in yes, ”he said.
Bannon interrupted Yeadon, saying, "I want you to back this up."
But Yeadon offered no evidence to back up his claim.
[We answer 5 key questions about the COVID-19 vaccine booster]
Yeadon responded by saying that there are a large number of adverse effects from the COVID-19 vaccines compared to other vaccines, and that they have been reported in VAERS, a federal database managed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (CDC) and the FDA, which is often used to drive disinformation campaigns.
VAERS helps researchers collect data on vaccine sequelae and detect patterns that can lead to more detailed analysis of some cases.
It is designed as an open system, where anyone can submit a report and these are widely accessible.
But the reports are not verified, and incomplete VAERS data is often cited as the basis for false claims about vaccine safety.
The CDC cautions that VAERS results are not sufficient to determine whether a vaccine causes a particular adverse event.
Getting a Booster Vaccine "Dramatically" Reduces COVID-19 Risk
Nov. 19, 202101: 30
Yeadon was chief scientific officer and vice president of respiratory and allergy research at Pfizer, according to his LinkedIn profile.
But his statements about COVID-19 vaccines have become the food for a series of false claims on social media.
Spanish verification site Maldita.es called Yeadon's claim false.
The virus can be deadly
The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Association of Children's Hospitals reported that as of November 4, 614 children died of COVID-19.
That figure was based on reports from 45 states, New York City, Puerto Rico, and Guam, and represents 0.09% of the 673,301 total COVID-19 deaths in those locations.
In contrast, there is no clear evidence that COVID-19 vaccines have caused any deaths in the United States.
Researchers are still evaluating whether there is a connection between the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and rare types of blood clots that have caused deaths, but those cases are few.
Disney Cruises Will Require Full COVID-19 Vaccination For Children Over 5 Years Old
Nov. 18, 202100: 25
In vaccine trials, zero deaths were reported among the 1,131 teens ages 12 to 15 who received the Pfizer vaccine, according to an April 2021 Food and Drug Administration (FDA) document.
Zero deaths were also reported among 2,489 people ages 12 to 17 who received the Moderna vaccine, according to an August 2021 medical journal article.
In July 2021, the CDC reported that there were 14 deaths among the 8.9 million people ages 12 to 17 who received the Pfizer vaccine.
But none of the deaths were determined to be vaccine-related, explained Dr. Sonja Rasmussen, a professor of pediatrics and epidemiology at the University of Florida.
[No, the COVID-19 vaccine did not cause a young woman to be hospitalized in Canada]
In total, more than 432 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in the United States from December 14, 2020 to November 8, 2021. During this time, VAERS received 9,549 reports of death (0.0022 %) among people who received a COVID-19 vaccine.
Our verdict
A viral image claimed that "children are 50 times more likely to die" from COVID-19 vaccines than from the virus itself.
There is no clear evidence that COVID-19 vaccines have caused any deaths.
Although we do know that several hundred children have died after contracting COVID-19.
Therefore, we
qualify the statement as false
.