In August 2023, news spread online about a secret report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which found that coronavirus vaccinations had led to the deaths of tens of thousands of minors. We decided to check if this is true.
Nearly identical reports that "a bombshell CDC report found a staggering 120,000 American children 'suddenly died' after receiving the mRNA COVID vaccine" can be found on portals, specializing in conspiracy theories, and entertainment resources. Many users posted the news blogging platforms (LiveJournal, "Zen"), visitors also wrote about it forums. There are posts about the sensational CDC report on social networks, for example in Twitter And "VKontakte"(in particular, in the group "Independent Association of Doctors"), and also in Telegram. In many such messages mentioned Anthony Fauci, former senior medical adviser to the President of the United States, who, according to the authors posts, lied about the safety of the Comirnaty vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech and is therefore responsible for these deaths.
“Verified” could not find any traces of the report mentioned in the messages being analyzed on the CDC website and in reputable media, but this is generally logical, given that it is presented as secret. Many articles and posts in both the Russian-language and English-language segments of the Internet (and there this news naturally spread even wider) provide links to the website of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is an international association of developed countries that recognize the principles of representative democracy and a free market economy. It's really collected there statistics on excess deaths in different countries (in particular, in the USA) for 2020–2023. However, there is no indication that the data was taken from some secret CDC report. Moreover, fact checkers from the project Lead Stories contacted the OECD for comment, and a representative from the organization stated that their statistics are based on publicly available data, published on the CDC website with a link to the National Center for Health Statistics.
It is also unclear where the information about the sudden nature of the deaths came from in viral publications. Sudden death (sometimes also called sudden cardiac death) is the medical term for unexpected death either within an hour of a person's symptoms or, if there are no witnesses, within 24 hours of the person being last seen alive. However, we cannot be sure that the authors of the analyzed articles and posts on social networks used this term precisely in its scientific meaning.
The OECD website talks about excess deaths for each week of the year (i.e. cases above the expected mortality rate, which was calculated based on the average number of deaths in a given week in 2015–2019), but there is no specificity regarding their causes. That is, this number may include both sudden deaths and those caused by chronic diseases. And this fact was also confirmed by an OECD representative in a comment to Lead Stories.
The OECD statistics on which the claim of 120,000 children dying suddenly is based have the ability to sort cases by age, but the lowest age range available is 0-44 years. It is impossible to separate deaths of children from adults using these data. By statisticsAccording to the Oxford University-based Our World In Data project, in the United States in 2021-2022, excess mortality among children (0-14 years old) was quite low, in the vast majority of weeks - even lower than the average in previous years. Apparently, most of the excess deaths in OECD statistics occur among adults (and some among children 15–18 years old; “Verified” was unable to find statistics specifically for this age category).
At the same time, it is not entirely clear what exact time period the authors of the verified statements have in mind. According to OECD statistics, in 2021 (the main phase of mass vaccination against coronavirus, started in the United States in December 2020, it fell exactly on him) in the United States, 76,930 excess deaths were recorded among people under 44 years of age, in 2022 - 53,930. If you add up these figures, the figure will be even higher - about 130,000, but, again, we are talking about the deaths of Americans under the age of 44.
According to data published on the OECD website, it is clear that in 2021, excess mortality in the United States was indeed quite high even in comparison with 2020 and 2022, in some weeks of the year - up to 60% above average. There is apparently no reason to assert that vaccination with the drug from Pfizer/BioNTech was the cause of such a high mortality rate - at least, this cannot be judged on the basis of supposedly secret statistical data alone, and the authors of the viral posts do not provide other justifications. The same year 2021 saw the distribution of “Deltas“- a more contagious and severe variant of COVID-19 than previous ones, which also affected even vaccinated people. Its spread is probably responsible for such a high excess mortality rate. In addition, even if we assume that the excess mortality is associated with vaccination, it is not entirely clear why the authors of viral articles blame the Comirnaty vaccine for this: it really is the most popular in the USA, but by no means the only one.
Anthony Fauci, whose lies about the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine are said to have killed those 120,000 people, in general doesn't have relationship with the American pharmaceutical corporation. He was not responsible for testing the vaccine either - this was done by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). First it approved use of the drug by people over 16 years of age, and then gradually, after additional studies, distributed your permission for other groups. There is no evidence that Fauci was involved in this process. It is not clear from the viral posts why he is responsible for the excess deaths.
The first mention of the secret CDC report that Verified was able to find was posted on the portal GeneralMCNews. Judging by other publications on this site, he specializes in conspiracy theories, and even satirical news (although there is an obvious disclaimer about this, usual for similar resources, “Verified” was not found). For example, a few recent headlines: “Bill Gates Just Released Malarial Mosquitoes” and “Which Companies Are Using Aborted Human Fetuses for Food?” In the GeneralMCNews account description in Twitter states that “deception can be used for good.” This is another argument in favor of the fact that publications about the death of 120,000 children due to the Comirnaty vaccine are not true.
Thus, there is no secret CDC report reported in numerous articles and social media posts, and the links provided in such messages lead to data taken from open sources. For 120,000 cases of sudden deaths, they are given excess deaths, actually recorded in the United States in 2020–2023 and, at best, not entirely consisting of sudden in the scientific sense of the word. Moreover, we are not just talking about children, as the alarmist headlines of articles and posts say, but about all Americans under 44 years of age. From the data in the OECD database on which the viral posts are actually based, it is not possible to conclude a link between excess deaths in the US in 2021 and vaccination with drugs from Pfizer/BioNTech or other certified manufacturers.
Cover photo: pexels.com
Read on the topic:
- Fact Check: NO 'Secret CDC Report' Shows Hundreds Of Thousands Of Children 'Died Suddenly' Following Rollout Of COVID-19 Vaccines
- Is it true that more than 10,000 people have died from COVID-19 vaccines in the US?
- Is it true that COVID-19 vaccination has led to a sharp increase in the incidence of myocarditis?
- Is it true that, according to a study in The Lancet, 73.9% of post-vaccination deaths were caused by COVID-19 vaccination?
- Is it true that Pfizer’s research director admitted: the pharmaceutical company is creating new variants of coronavirus for selfish reasons?
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