The claim that coronavirus deaths in Gibraltar were caused by the vaccine, not the virus, was shared on social media. This statement is false.
Examples can be seen (here, (here).
‘Gibraltar is 2.6 square kilometers in size. On January 6, they had a total of only 10 deaths. The vaccine arrived on the island on January 10. By January 20, there were 53 deaths. The world meter shows today that there are now 70 deaths. SEVENTY !! Why is no one talking about Gibraltar? “, Reads the reports.
The coronavirus vaccination program began on January 10 in Gibraltar, a British overseas territory on the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula (here).
By that date, a total of 16 COVID-19 deaths had been recorded by the government (here).
By the twentieth it increased to 53 (here) and to 70 seven days later (here).
However, there is no evidence that these deaths have been linked to the deployment of the vaccine.
The increase appears to be part of an upward trend that began before the first dose of vaccine was administered.
On January 27, the government said in a statement that out of the more than 11,000 people vaccinated, six died (here) for unrelated reasons.
“The Gibraltar Health Authority can confirm that there is no evidence whatsoever of any causal link between these six deaths and the vaccination with the Pfizer vaccine,” the statement said. “Statements on social media are completely untrue.”
According to the government, it appears that these six people caught COVID-19 before being vaccinated.
“Despite testing COVID-19 before vaccination, the infection was not detected in them during the vaccination, but in the days thereafter.”
The people were all between 70 and 100 years old, the government said.
Reuters’ fact-checking downplayed similar claims about COVID-19 vaccine safety (here, here) and (here).
VERDICT
Untrue. There is no evidence that the increase in COVID-19 deaths in Gibraltar is in any case related to the vaccine.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.