Are COVID vaccines more dangerous than COVID?

A tweet from a prolific anti-vaccine account claims that no health children have died from COVID, and children who are vaccinated against COVID are 50 times more likely to die.

The tweet is based on statements by Mike Yeadon, an ex-Pfizer employee with previous anti-vaccine claims, who also thinks respiratory viruses do not exist. In 2021, he petitioned European medical regulators to stop COVID vaccine clinical trials, claiming the vaccines could cause infertility in women. That claim has since shown to be false.

Yeadon made the claim that healthy children don’t die and are more likely to die from the vaccine on an episode of Steve Bannon’s internet show. Like his other claims, he provides no evidence to support it. He does mention VAERS, but as we’ve mentioned many times before, VAERS analyzes reports of adverse events that happen after vaccination. Anyone can submit a report to VAERS, and submissions do not mean that a vaccine definitely caused the event.

One doctor famously submitted a report that the flu shot turned him into the Incredible Hulk. VAERS is helpful for keeping track of vaccine safety, but just because something is reported doesn’t mean the vaccine caused it. Even if they’re not sure, doctors should report any important health problems that happen after vaccination.

The claims he makes about vaccine injuries are unsubstantiated because they were lifted without analysis from a database of unverified reports. As for the idea that healthy children do not die from COVID? It is true that children are at a much lower risk compared to older people. However, low risk does not mean no risk. Healthy children can still die from or suffer MIS-C and other complications from COVID.