Do COVID vaccines cause eye problems?

Using an unsourced graph as evidence, technology millionaire Steve Kirsch claims that a rise in cataract and other vision problems can only be caused by COVID vaccination.

This claim is based on bath-faith debate techniques, such as cherry-picking, to try to make correlations between vaccines and bad outcomes. In this case, Kirsch notices a jump in the very uncommonly used medical billing code H28 while ignoring other codes between H00 and H59, which have remained relatively stable.

Kirsch asks the question “What is the more likely explanation if it wasn’t the shots?” One breakdown (along with sources) shows all the data that Kirsch ignores. A very plausible explanation that those outside the UK NHS might not think about is that the increase may be due to more people seeking diagnosis for cataract surgeries rather than a real increase in prevalence.

When anti-vaxxers see a data point about anything, they immediately tie it to vaccines without testing out other hypotheses. Scientists see an anomaly like this and test out many hypotheses. Be a scientist!