Majority of Americans Believe COVID Shots Cause ‘Unexplained Deaths’
About a quarter of American adults said they ‘personally know someone’ who they believe was killed by COVID-19 vaccine-related side effects, a survey shows.
A poll carried out this month found that a majority of Americans believe that COVID-19 vaccines have led to many unexplained deaths—with about a quarter of adults reporting that they believe they know someone who could be among the deaths.
At the same time, 36 percent said they do not believe a significant number of deaths can be attributed to the shots, which were rolled out in late 2020, and 16 percent say it is “not at all likely.” About 11 percent said they aren’t sure, according to Rasmussen.
Another 24 percent of American adults said they “personally know someone” who they believe was killed by COVID-19 vaccine-related side effects. Sixty-one percent said they do not, and 10 percent stated they’re not sure. About a year ago, 28 percent said they knew someone who might have died from the vaccine.
Rasmussen found that 54 percent said they think there are good reasons to be concerned about COVID-19 vaccine safety issues, while 33 percent believe that individuals who worry about the shots are “spreading conspiracy theories.” Thirteen percent said they don’t know.
The difference was more dramatic when surveying people based on party affiliation. The pollster found that 69 percent of GOP voters believe “there are legitimate reasons to be concerned about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines,” while 47 percent of Democrats and 54 percent of unaffiliated voters said they believe the same.
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Among Democrats, the poll found that 55 percent “believe people who worry about vaccine safety are spreading conspiracy theories.”
That view was shared by only 27 percent of unaffiliated voters and 21 percent of Republicans.
The poll also revealed that 56 percent of blacks, 59 percent of other minority groups, and 50 percent of whites think that it is “at least somewhat likely that side effects of COVID-19 vaccines have caused a significant number of unexplained deaths.”
Other Surveys
Several months ago, the Annenberg Public Policy Center with the University of Pennsylvania, polled 1,500 American adults.
That survey, taken between Oct. 5 and Oct. 12, found that about 63 percent of Americans think that getting the COVID-19 vaccine is safer than contracting the virus itself—a drop of 12 percentage points from April 2021 when 75 percent held that view.
It also found that Americans who view the shot as unsafe increased from 18 percent in August 2022 to 24 percent.
The polls can be seen as a blow to federal health agencies, who unremittingly have attempted to persuade more Americans to receive the initial and updated vaccines and boosters.
After the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) signed off on the latest booster shots made by Moderna, Pfizer, and Novavax in September 2023, recent data have signaled that uptake appears to be relatively slow.
New Variant
As of Jan. 20, the JN.1 variant makes up around 85 percent of cases, the CDC said. There are no signs that the variant causes more severe disease or hospitalizations than prior variants, officials and researchers have said.
Meanwhile, the CDC’s tracking data show that COVID-19 hospitalizations, case numbers, and emergency room visits are declining for the most recent reporting week ending Jan. 13.
While the numbers have risen in recent months, they are still much lower than previous increases in the virus across the United States throughout the pandemic, the CDC’s historical data show.
This article has been archived for your research. The original version from Epoch Times can be found here.
