The CDC has not identified any cases in which a vaccine caused a person’s death.
‘These vaccines have had incredible safety profiles in trials and after approval. So far there has been nothing to confirm these horrific events, ‘said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an associate of ABC News, said.
In fact, an average of 8,000 people die every day in the United States. Some of them have just received a coronavirus vaccine.
“We have to be very careful about causality,” Brownstein said. ‘There will be false relationships, especially because the vaccine is aimed at the elderly or people with chronic conditions. Just because these events happen in the vicinity of the vaccine does not mean that the vaccine caused these events. ‘
“Nursing home centers and hospices are of particular concern because they are homes for incredibly frail populations,” Brownstein pointed out, “and you have to look at the background speed of these events in the population.”
Scientists say that it is human nature to draw a connection between events – especially when they happen close to each other – but that does not mean that one caused the other.
“These medical events occur every day, including unexplained diseases,” said Dr. William Schaffner, professor of medicine in the Department of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “The question really is, is it occurring at an increasing rate? in the vaccinated population than in the general population? ”
Every time someone gets sick or dies shortly after vaccination, government agencies investigate to make sure there is no connection.
“The CDC, FDA, CMS and the Department of Defense are all working together on a series of surveillance activities for medical events that occur after vaccination,” Schaffner said. “They are looking for these events, and collecting them and investigating them in a very systematic way.”
“These events are taken very seriously,” Schaffner said, adding that authorities are conducting autopsies and also looking for patterns to ensure there is no connection.
To date, more than 26 million people in the United States have received a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. The CDC estimates that out of every 1 million people, two or three who receive the Moderna vaccine, and about 11 who receive the Pfizer vaccine, can get severe allergic reaction. Some people experience side effects such as fever, fatigue and a sore arm. But so far, the CDC has not identified a single case in which the vaccine caused the person’s death.
Schaffner said that although these isolated deaths may sound scary shortly after vaccination, we should all try to resist the temptation to assume that these events are related.
“We all know that the rooster crows before dawn, but we do not think the rooster lets the sun rise, simply because they are related in time,” he said.
Dr. Stephanie Widmer is a physician in emergency medicine and medical toxicology fellowship in New York and a contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit.