The Claim:
Anti-vaxxers are circulating an article that claims that 120,000 “children” have died since 2020 and that vaccines are to blame. The source for this data is the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and their table of excess deaths for people under the age of 45 from 2020-2023.
The Facts:
The overall claim is based on data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OEC), which tracks excess deaths. Note, the dataset doesn’t include the type of death let alone the supposed “suddenness” of the deaths.
Excess deaths refers to the difference between the expected number of deaths and the actual number of deaths in a specific time period and includes all deaths from all causes. The specific claim that almost 120,000 of these deaths are “sudden deaths” and due to the COVID vaccine are completely unfounded, and they offer no evidence to back up this claim. Rather, the CDC indicates that many of these excess deaths are due to COVID infection itself.
If this claim had any merit, one would expect a higher number of deaths in areas with higher vaccination rates. However, higher excess deaths were seen in areas with lower vaccination rates.
Disclaimer: Science is always evolving and our understanding of these topics may have evolved since this was originally posted. Browse the latest information posted in Just the Facts Topics.
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