A claim shared online saying that coronavirus mRNA vaccinations could halve the population within five years by killing most people who receive it is based on no scientific fact. Vaccines for COVID-19 have been shown to be safe and effective.
The claims were shared until January and February by hundreds of social media users who uploaded a screenshot of a post from another platform (an example here). The post on the screenshot was written on Brighteon.Social by a man with the username “Health Ranger” (here), who says he has an “important memory” about mRNA vaccines.
‘Health Ranger’ is a nickname used by Mike Adams, a man who describes himself as an ‘outspoken consumer health advocate’ and ‘internet activist’ (here), and whose website Natural News in 2017 (here) on Google is blacklisted. Natural News has also been banned from Facebook here (here).
Adams’ report on mRNA vaccines, now shared by Facebook users, reads: “IMPORTANT REMINDER: Most people who take the mRNA vaccine will die within five years. So far, 4.2 million doses have been administered in the United States, and it is growing by the day. The population by 2025 is possibly HALF of what it is now, depending on how much the mRNA wax takes. ”
But there is no scientific evidence to suggest that mRNA vaccines have caused any deaths, nor any indication that they will do so in the next five years. There is also no scientific evidence that the population could halve by 2025 as a result.
The two COVID-19 mRNA vaccines approved for use in the United States – created by Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna – do not exist for five years, which means that there are no data on the long-term effects yet. However, using all current data from clinical trials, the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has considered both safe and effective (here, here, here).
The U.S. government also monitors reported side effects on both vaccines through its adverse event vaccination reporting system (VAERS) (vaers.hhs.gov/). Updated data can be downloaded (here), showing reports of medical events after a vaccine has been administered. This includes cases where someone died after receiving a vaccine; However, VAERS emphasizes that the “inclusion of events in VAERS data does not imply causation”, ie: a death occurring after a vaccine does not mean that it was due to the vaccination.
On February 21, 63 million doses of mRNA vaccines were administered in the United States. During this time, 1,099 deaths were recorded at VAERS – a rate of 0.0015%. The CDC said that a review of the available information in these cases had no evidence that the vaccine contributed to these deaths (here).
A 26 February report from the Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Related Biological Products (VRBPAC) analyzed the data up to 16 February and found that the most common side effect of the Pfizer and Modern vaccines was a headache ( here) Others include fatigue, dizziness, pain at the injection site and chills.
According to data up to January 18, which looked at cases of anaphylaxis – a serious but treatable side effect – there were reports of 2.5 cases per million doses of Moderna vaccine; 4.7 cases per million doses for Pfizer (here).
VERDICT
Untrue. There is no scientific evidence to suggest that most people who receive an mRNA vaccine will die within the next five years. Current evidence suggests the opposite: clinical trials have found that mRNA vaccines are safe and effective.
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