Covid-19 vaccines have not killed twice as many people as the virus

An article published on the Daily Sceptic blog reports that a poll has found there have been “twice as many vaccine deaths as Covid deaths in US households.”

The survey in question consisted of three polls asking around 1,500 people a series of questions about Covid-19 and the vaccines. It found that 3.6% of respondents said that someone in their household had died “from having a Covid infection”, and that 7.9% said that someone in their household had died “from the Covid vaccine”.

The Daily Sceptic has used the results of this survey to claim that “more than twice as many Americans have lost a household member to a Covid vaccine injury as have lost one to Covid”.

This is not supported by official data on Covid-19 deaths and vaccine safety, and it’s unlikely that the survey was representative of the US population. The Daily Sceptic has noted this in its article, saying that the discrepancy “suggests the survey is exaggerating results, perhaps due to a self-selection bias among those who respond”.

If this data were to be representative of the US population, it would suggest that the true Covid-19 death toll is far higher than the official figure, and that millions of people have died as a result of the vaccine.

If the Covid-19 vaccines had been plausibly linked to this number of deaths, or even a fraction as many, they would not be approved for use. In reality, only a small number of deaths have been linked to the Covid-19 vaccines in the United States.

On top of this, asking respondents whether a household member has passed away from Covid-19 or the vaccine is not a reliable way to determine the true number of people who have died of these causes, as it is based on a respondent’s opinion, and not medical fact or data.

Deaths following Covid-19 vaccine are rare

In the United States, as of 2 June 2022, 15,312 preliminary reports of deaths following the Covid-19 vaccine were received by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). We have previously written about why these reports are not a reliable source of information for deaths following the Covid-19 vaccine, and how adverse events following the Covid-19 vaccine were not necessarily caused by the vaccine itself.

In March, a major CDC study found that there was no link between the number of deaths following vaccination and receiving two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine.

A small number of deaths caused by blood clots with low platelets have been linked to the J&J/Janssen vaccine.

Issues with the survey

The three polls, which took place on 30 June, 2 July and 4 July 2022, were commissioned by Steve Kirsch, a technology entrepreneur and prominent critic of the Covid-19 vaccines whom we have written about before. They were conducted through Pollfish, a DIY market research platform.

Mr Kirsch claims “survey recipients are a broad cross-section of America and were selected by Pollfish.”

Full Fact asked Pollfish about the methodology behind this particular survey, and it told us clients design their own questionnaires and choose their target audience, who are reached through Pollfish’s network of “partner smartphone apps and websites”.

We’ve also attempted to contact Mr Kirsch for further information on the survey’s design and respondents.  However, it appears unlikely that the results of the survey were collected in a way that could lead them to be representative of the US population.