'Cannot believe we are here': 700,000 US COVID-19 deaths is a milestone we never expected to reach USA TODAY
A 52-page report from a pair of anti-vaccine advocates claims to present the truth about COVID-19 vaccines. However, it does just the opposite.
The website Stop World Control published the so-called Vaccine Death Report in September 2021,and it was shared across Facebook, including in this Sept. 26 post. It is written by David Sorenson and Dr. Vladimir Zelenko, a New York doctor who made headlines for prescribing hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 even though health authorities cautioned against it.
The report claims that "millions have died from COVID injections" around the world, and includes narratives from the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel and Brazil to back up this claim.
On top of that, it claims that half a million people within the United States have suffered severe side effects such as strokes, heart failure, brain disorders, convulsions and more.
"The data shows that we are currently witnessing the greatest organized mass murder in the history of our world," the report states.
The alarming findings cite databases like the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System and others. But the report misinterpreted the data to draw unfounded conclusions about the vaccines.
The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, also called VAERS, is an official public government database where anyone can submit any potential adverse health effect following a vaccine. However, the reports are not verified, and the system itself warns that reports can contain information that is incomplete, inaccurate, coincidental or unverifiable. When used improperly, VAERS can be a source for misinformation.
Reports of death after COVID-19 vaccination are rare. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not verified any deaths as a result of the vaccines approved in the United States. Researchers are still evaluating whether there is a connection between the Johnson and Johnson vaccine and rare types of blood clots, but such cases are few.
More than 390 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in the U.S., with 55.6% of Americans fully vaccinated. CDC spokesperson Martha Sharan said the FDA requires health care providers to report any death after COVID-19 vaccination to VAERS, even if its unclear if the vaccine was the cause. The CDC states that VAERS has received 8,164 reports of deaths following a vaccine, or 0.0021%. Thats far lower than the claims from the vaccine death report. However, thats still unsubstantiated given that VAERS reports do not conclude if a vaccine caused an adverse event. More evidence is needed.
Sharan said that serious side effects that could cause a long-term health problem are "extremely unlikely following any vaccination, including COVID-19 vaccination(s)."
"COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective," she said. "COVID-19 vaccines were evaluated in tens of thousands of participants in clinical trials. The vaccines met the (FDAs) rigorous scientific standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality needed to support approval or authorization of a vaccine."
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration told Reuters that under reporting is a limitation in VAERS in regards to COVID-19 vaccines, but "there currently is not evidence to suggest it would underestimate the amount of COVID-19 vaccine-related deaths to such a large degree."
Outside of the U.S. the report on Stop World Control cites other sources like EudraVigilance, the European database counterpart to VAERS. The report states that according to EudraVigilance, 22,000 people died from vaccines and 2 million suffered adverse events but the database itself warns that its information contains "suspected side effects" that may not have been caused by the medicine. "Only a detailed evaluation and scientific assessment of all available data allows for robust conclusions to be drawn on the benefits and risks of a medicine," the system states.
The death report includes narratives from Facebook users and people from around the world who claim that they or someone they knew died or suffered serious adverse events from the COVID-19 vaccines. These narratives do not provide context or substantial evidence to back up these claims.
Our ruling
A report written by anti-vaccine advocates on a website called Stop World Control made claims that the COVID-19 vaccine has killed millions of people.
This report cites sources such as the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, an official database to which anyone can report any kind of adverse health event following a vaccine. VAERS reports are not analyzed for accuracy, and may contain information that is incomplete, inaccurate or coincidental. Europes EudraVigilance is a similar system to VAERS and issues the same warning about its own reports. No credible source suggests that millions of people have died from vaccines.
We rate this claim Pants on Fire!
The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) reports 40 new individuals in the Juneau community 38 residents and two nonresidents identified with COVID-19 for October 1. There arecurrentlyseven people with COVID-19 hospitalized at Bartlett Regional Hospital.
The Juneau School District reports 12 new individuals whove tested positive for COVID-19 and were infectious while in school:
COVID-19 cases related to schools are posted on juneauschools.org(click on the green COVID-19 Cases block).
Statewide, the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services reports1,044 new people identified with COVID-19 1,011 are residents and 33 are nonresidents. The state also reports one recent death a male Anchorage resident in his 50s bringing the total number of resident deaths to 557. Alaska has had 110,850 cumulative resident cases of COVID-19 and a total of 4,853 nonresidents.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) A hopeful sign in the window of a house in Salt Lake City, Wednesday April 1, 2020.
| Oct. 1, 2021, 1:26 p.m.
| Updated: 1:40 p.m.
Eighteen months into the coronavirus pandemic, Utah has passed its 500,000th case and hospitals are full of COVID-19 patients amid a surge driven by the rise of the delta variant.
From the states first coronavirus death, in March 2020, Utah is now moving toward a death toll of 3,000.
But more than half of the states population is now vaccinated and in recent days, cases appear to have plateaued and perhaps begun to drop as has been seen in other states.
Heres an interactive timeline of Utahs experience of the pandemic, from the beginning.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. The Illinois Department of Public Health reported Friday 18,735 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 in Illinois, including 236 additional deaths since reporting last Friday.
More than 81% of Illinois adults have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose and more than 64% of Illinois adults are fully vaccinated, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Of Illinois total population, almost 68% has received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose and 53% of Illinois total population is fully vaccinated.
IDPH reports a total of 1,630,864 cases, including 25,017 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois.
Since reporting on Friday, Sept. 24, laboratories have reported 842,141 specimens for a total of 32,034,910.
On Thursday, IDPH reported 180,411 COVID-19 tests; the highest one-day total of COVID-19 tests since the beginning of the pandemic.
As of Thursday night, 1,833 individuals in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 447 patients were in the ICU and 236 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from September 24-30, 2021 is 2.2%.The preliminary seven-day statewide test positivity from September 24-30, 2021 is 2.8%.
A total of 14,571,537 vaccines have been administered in Illinois as of last midnight.The seven-day rolling average of vaccines administered daily is 22,754 doses.
Since reporting last Friday, 159,278 doses were reported administered in Illinois.
On the heels of the deadliest month of the pandemic for pregnant people yet, Dr. Manisha Gandhi told CNBC that she's not optimistic about Covid-19 this winter.
"To be dealing with this surge and taking care of really sick women, has just really taken a toll," said Gandhi, who is chief of maternal-fetal medicine at Texas Children's hospital. "I'm still really afraid this is just another lull before another potential surge."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an urgent message to pregnant women on Wednesday to get a Covid-19 vaccine. The agency reported that at least 22,000 pregnant women have been hospitalized with Covid, and more than 160 have died, including 22 in August.
Gandhi, who has treated pregnant women with Covid, told "The News with Shepard Smith" that not only are the mothers with Covid "sicker," but that it's also impacting the newborn children.
"We're also having to deliver them prematurely, so they themselves are dealing with complications, but then we have to deliver their baby to improve their health, and that results in the baby having to go to their own intensive care unit," explained Gandhi.
Fewer than one-third of all pregnant women in the U.S. are fully vaccinated, according to CDC data, and nearly 97% of the pregnant women who have been hospitalized with Covid-19 in 2021, so far, have been unvaccinated.
Gandhi told host Shepard Smith that over nine months of data from the CDC should reassure pregnant women that the vaccine is safe.
"This should really help support women, that this is a safe vaccine and they really can be sure that there's nothing being, any kind of adverse events to be expected," said the obstetrician/gynecologist.
Gandhi added, "to people who worry about putting things in their body, once you get Covid and you're getting really sick, I have to give a lot more medications that have a lot less safety data than this vaccine."
The Delta variant is finding clusters of unvaccinated people even in some of the best-vaccinated parts of the country, such as Maine. A Covid-19 surge in the New England state has filled hospitals and put dozens of mostly unvaccinated people on ventilators, setting records for the state.
The problem, public-health experts say, is the variants high transmissibility combined with the relaxation of precautions such as wearing masks. Covid-19 infections and hospitalizations have also flared among mostly unvaccinated people in Vermont and western Massachusetts, highlighting the risk Delta poses even in states with the best track records for getting shots in arms.
"It is within our power, and within our grasp, to prevent that from occurring," Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN on Monday.
The way to do it, he said, is by utilizing mitigation measures such as wearing masks indoors and in schools, as well as increasing vaccination rates.
The idea of vaccine mandates for schools and businesses has sparked debate through much of the country, but with the spread of the Delta variant, more leaders are adopting such methods.
And the evidence shows that vaccine mandates do get more people vaccinated, and the more vaccinated people there are in a community, the more protected the community is, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told ABC News on Monday.
Those mandates have been implemented by the federal government for its employees, and President Joe Biden stressed the importance of people getting vaccinated Monday while receiving his booster shot.
"This is a pandemic of the unvaccinated. That's why I'm moving forward with vaccination requirements wherever I can," he said.
Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former Food and Drug Administration commissioner, estimated that the Delta wave of the pandemic could run its course by Thanksgiving, and Covid-19 could eventually become more of a seasonal nuisance than a devastating pandemic. But Fauci said that is dependent on getting a lot more people vaccinated.
Many places are still impacted by the spread.
North Carolina has received 25 Advanced Life Support ambulances as the state experiences "greatly increased" calls for service during the Covid-19 pandemic. The ambulances each have a two-person crew of EMS providers, according to a news release from the North Carolina Department of Public Safety. The ambulances were provided in response to a request to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
"These ambulances and crews will provide necessary relief to our extremely busy EMS systems," North Carolina Emergency Management Director Will Ray said. "While it's not the full complement we requested, we know medical resources are extremely limited across the nation right now, and we are grateful for this assistance from our federal partners."
Pfizer/BioNTech submit initial data on vaccine for kids ages 5 to 11
A formal submission to request EUA for the vaccine is expected to follow in the coming weeks, the companies said in a statement.
This is the first submission of data to the FDA for a Covid-19 vaccine for younger children. The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is approved for people age 16 and older and has an EUA for people ages 12 to 15.
Last week, Pfizer released details of a Phase 2/3 trial that showed its Covid-19 vaccine was safe and generated a "robust" antibody response in children ages 5 to 11.
FDA officials have said that once vaccine data was submitted, the agency could authorize a vaccine for younger children in a matter of weeks -- not months -- but it would depend on the timing and quality of the data provided.
Fauci hopes the vaccines can be given to children ages 5 to 11 by the end of October, he told MSNBC on Tuesday.
Vaccine mandates argued in court
Mask and vaccine mandates have drawn intense debates.
But, a Maricopa County judge ruled the ban unconstitutional Monday in a move Gov. Doug Ducey called "an example of judicial overreach."
The ruling was made because the Covid-19 measures were inserted into the state budget bill, and legislators are precluded from "combining unrelated provisions into one bill to garner votes," according to the court filing.
One of Tennessee's largest school districts plans to implement a mandatory mask mandate Tuesday ordered by a federal judge, and the school district is preparing for potential protests.
"Students who refuse to wear a mask will be allowed in the school building, but please know they will not be in their regular classroom," Superintendent for Knox County Schools, Bob Thomas, said. Parents will be allowed to take their child home for refusing to wear a mask, but the student's absence will be counted as unexcused, a message to families said.
The injunction was then dissolved by a federal appeals court Monday, allowing the city's schools to enforce vaccine mandates among educators once again. The cohort of teachers and paraprofessionals who requested the injunction lost their appeal, their attorneys said.
The deadline for school employees to receive at least one Covid-19 vaccine dose has been extended to the end of Friday, meaning only those who complied will be able to work the following Monday (October 4), the city's Department of Education said after the ruling.
Those getting a first dose of a two-dose vaccine must later prove they got the second dose within 45 days of the first, according to the order.
"Vaccinations are our strongest tool in the fight against Covid-19 -- this ruling is on the right side of the law and will protect our students and staff," city education department spokeswoman Danielle Filson told CNN in a statement.
"With thousands of teachers not vaccinated, the city may regret what it wished for," attorney for the teachers and paraprofessionals who asked for the injunction, Mark Fonte, said in a statement to CNN. "Our children will be left with no teachers and no security in the schools."
The union had also filed a motion requesting the requirement be put on hold while it negotiated terms of its members' employment, but Judge Jackie Corwin said the importance of protecting the citizens and officers outweighs the union's right to bargain for employment terms and conditions.
Access to boosters will likely expand, but for most people there is no rush, experts say
Health experts have been discussing vaccine boosters as another way to increase protection against the virus, but they are not currently accessible to everyone.
Booster doses of Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine are now available to people 65 and older and some adults with underlying medical conditions or those at increased risk for a breakthrough infection.
"The frequency and type of side effects were similar to those seen after the second vaccine doses and were mostly mild or moderate and short-lived," the CDC director said during a White House Covid-19 briefing.
While boosters will likely become available to more people in the United States, not everyone will need one right away, Fauci said Monday.
Many people are still well protected from their initial Covid-19 vaccination, while certain categories of people, such as the elderly and those in long-term care facilities, may be ready for a boost six months after their initial vaccination, Fauci told CNN.
"If you're a person who ultimately might get a booster that will make you optimally protected, you don't necessarily need to get it tomorrow," Fauci said.
And boosters for people who got a Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccine will be addressed with urgency, Walensky told ABC.
"I want to reiterate that this is a very slow wane. There is no urgency here to go and get your booster immediately. You know, walk don't run to your booster appointment," she said. "We will come and look at the data for Moderna and J&J in very short order."
CNN's Lauren Mascarenhas, Naomi Thomas, Jason Hoffman, Deidre McPhillips, Rebekah Riess, Jason Hanna, Jamie Gumbrecht, Devon Sayers, Amy Simonson and Jennifer Henderson contributed to this report.
Only a day after details were revealed, Republican leaders in the Ohio House of Representatives attempted Wednesday to voteouta bill that would establish exemptions for COVID-19 vaccine mandates imposed by employers and schools.
Instead, it was never brought up for a vote in the first place.
"Members wanted to take a little more time to consider some of the provisions andnew ideas surfaced. And so we're just taking a little more time to consider, Ohio House Speaker Bob Cupp, R-Lima, told reporters.
House Bill 435,sponsored by Rep. Bill Seitz, R-Green Township, and Rep. Rick Carfagna, R-Genoa Township, was given special priority by GOP leadership, who were rushing to pass it out without public testimony.
But the short timeframe was criticized by multiple lawmakers and groups. Carfagna had said there's been plenty enough testimony on vaccine mandates in hearings of other vaccine bills.
Another possible reason for the delay, though Cupp said it wasn't a factor: interest groups from both sides who announced they opposed the leadership's proposal.
The bill was meant to offer an alternative approach to complete bans on vaccine mandates, to help appease hospital and business groups. The influential Ohio Chamber of Commerce has opposed past bills telling businesses what they can or cannot do.
On Wednesday, the chamber made clear it opposed House Bill 435.Hospital groups also remain opposed to the bill, saying the approach still derailed efforts fighting the virus.
"House Bill 435 infringes upon the rights of Ohios employers. One-size-fits-all government mandates limiting employer rights are not the right approach, the Chambersaid in a written statement.
But advocates against vaccine mandates didn't like how rushed it was as well, andsaidit didn't go far enough.
"SUB HB435 does not prevent mandates," wrote Health Freedom Ohio on Facebook.
Cupp said that House leadership would "immediately" go back to the drawing board to see what methods are to be pursued.
Despite the speed,details ofHB435 were already undergoing scrutiny.
Under the bill, private and public schools and employers can mandate the COVID-19 shot, but only ones fully approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is currently the only one; others are still under emergency authorization.
Anybody can be exempt from the requirement for reasons of conscience, medical reasons or "natural immunity," defined as"presence of COVID-19 antibodies in an amount at least equal to those conferred by a COVID-19 vaccine."
Rep. Beth Liston, D-Dublin, noted there's no medical standard on proving immunity effectiveness from antibodies from previous COVID-19 infections. Whether immunity from infection is effective as vaccine immunity is still unclear.
Some also questioned how flexible the exemptions are. For those choosing a conscience exemption, for example,one only would need a written statement saying such and couldn't be questioned further.
Seitz said he hopes people exempting themselves are "doing so in good faith," comparing having peoplequestioned further about their religion or beliefs to the Spanish Inquisition.
Not everybody can get exemptions. Those working in children's hospitals and hospital intensive care units can't, and Democrats questioned why other health care settings weren't included, too.
Carfagna responded that many children aren't eligible for the vaccine and ICUs tend to have the most vulnerable patients, so that's why they were singled out.
"Hopefully other health care settings are mostly already vaccinated by now," he said.
Republicans had questions as well, asking why all employees hired after the bill's effective date would not be eligible for exemptions.
Carfagna said that's because a job hunter should already knowthat vaccination is or isn't a work requirement before accepting the job offer. On the other hand, currently employed people saw their work conditions change whentheir bossesbegan requiring vaccinations.
Quite a few conservatives have said the bill doesn't go far enough in protecting "medical freedom."
"When a weak bill is passed, the momentum is lost, and then whenever a conservative representative tries to do anything further on the issue, leadership tells them, 'we already passed a bill about that,'" wrote Rep. Nino Vitale, R-Urbana, in his newsletter.
Titus Wu is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.
Globally, were in a race to vaccinate the world against COVID-19. Were moving into the winter months across the Northern Hemisphere, there is increasing concern regarding COVID-19 transmission over this winter. Colder months drive people indoors, holiday travels, and children are back in schoolall things that can help spread respiratory viruses, like COVID-19.
In the United States, 55.4% of the population is fully vaccinated. Meaning, we still have a lot of work to do, especially when we consider the latest recommendations for boosters for those over 65 years of age, more vulnerable to severe disease, or those working in high-risk professions. The COVID-19 vaccines have been amazingly effective against severe illness and death, but nonetheless the question of ability to prevent infection and reduce transmission has been a huge topic of discussion. As we move into a period of boosters and longer immunity, were still working to understand hospitalizations and deaths in adults after being vaccinated.
A new study published in The BMJ breaks down the risk prediction of death or hospitalization related to COVID-19 in adults following their vaccination. In a national prospective cohort study, the research team assessed adults 18-100 years of age from December 2020 to June 2021 who were vaccinated. Drawing on primary outcomes of death and hospital admission, they reviewed such data 14 days after each vaccination dose (one or two doses). The authors noted that over 6.9 million vaccinated patients were studied in the cohort, with over 5.1 million having two vaccine doses. In this group. 2031 COVID-19 associated deaths occurred and 1929 hospitalizations were related to COVID-19. Of those vaccinated and 14 or more days after vaccination, 81 deaths occurred, and 71 hospital admissions occurred. The authors noted that Cause specific hazard ratios were highest for patients with Downs syndrome (12.7-fold increase), kidney transplantation (8.1-fold), sickle cell disease (7.7-fold), care home residency (4.1-fold), chemotherapy (4.3-fold), HIV/AIDS (3.3-fold), liver cirrhosis (3.0-fold), neurological conditions (2.6-fold), recent bone marrow transplantation or a solid organ transplantation ever (2.5-fold), dementia (2.2-fold), and Parkinsons disease (2.2-fold). Other conditions with increased risk (ranging from 1.2-fold to 2.0-fold increases) included chronic kidney disease, blood cancer, epilepsy, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, coronary heart disease, stroke, atrial fibrillation, heart failure, thromboembolism, peripheral vascular disease, and type 2 diabetes. A similar pattern of associations was seen for covid-19 related hospital admissions. No evidence indicated that associations differed after the second dose, although absolute risks were reduced.
This particularly study is important in risk stratification in regards to multiple doses of COVID-19 vaccines and helped provide insight into those at highest risk for disease and death after vaccination, which is something were increasingly in need of as we navigate the winter and topics of boosters. In this interim, its important we increase access to vaccines globally and break through barriers that prevent people from having easy access to vaccination. Moreover, until we have global vaccine equity, the threat of variants will continue, meaning that as we study the long-term protection of vaccines, we need to continue to mask in high-risk environments and help reduce the threat of infection.
