Adverse event rate for COVID vaccine

There are two problems with this claim: it wildly overstates the number of serious adverse events from the COVID vaccine and it misrepresents the comparison of the COVID vaccine with swine flu and rotavirus vaccines.

The interviewed British cardiologist seems to focus his practice primarily on obesity while promoting vaccine misinformation. He introduces his vaccine concern with the false claim that current COVID variants are “no worse than the flu.” In fact, the latest variants of COVID kill more than 450 daily—that’s more than three times as many people as are killed by the flu. He claims that his high estimate of serious adverse events is based on “good quality data.” However, his numbers are based on the misleading findings of a study. Multiple peer-reviewed studies have shown that serious adverse events from the COVID vaccine are rare and the benefits of vaccination outweigh its risks.

Finally, this claim assumes that adverse events alone prompt the withdrawal of a vaccine. In fact, the decision to withdraw swine flu and rotavirus vaccines was not exclusively based on adverse events. These decisions also weigh vaccine benefit versus risk. In the two cases of withdrawn vaccines, the vaccine benefits did not outweigh the risks. Conversely, the life-saving benefits of the COVID vaccine vastly outweigh the rare risks of an adverse event.