The myth of “excess mortality” in relation to Covid vaccines

Vaccines

Oct 9

Expert

Dr Dan Wilson (aka Debunk the Funk): PhD, Molecular Biology, Carnegie Mellon

Claim

Anti-vaxxers have long claimed that Covid vaccines have resulted in excess mortality. In this video, Dr Wilson looks at a BMJ study circulating that "proves” that Covid vaccines have resulted in excess deaths.

Reality

The study in question merely comments on data from Our World In Data, showing an increase in excess deaths despite the rollout of vaccines and better treatments for COVID-19. The study does not analyze or suggest that vaccines are causing these excess deaths.

Dr Wilson further clarifies that multiple studies worldwide have shown that COVID-19 vaccines do not increase the risk of all-cause deaths. He also points out that countries with higher vaccination rates have fewer excess deaths. Near the end of the video, he calls for better early treatment for COVID-19 patients and to ignore misleading headlines about the BMJ study.

It's a direct misrepresentation of the paper to say that it is suggesting that vaccines are causing these excess deaths when they don't analyze or do anything to address the question of whether or not that's the case. And just to show you how ridiculous that idea is, and how lazy this paper was, if you take data from Our World In Data and look at Covid deaths from the same countries involved in this BMJ study, and overlay those Covid deaths with excess deaths in the same graph that was used in the paper, in the same timeline that was used in the paper, you see that the Covid deaths align pretty perfectly with spikes in excess deaths. COVID is mostly responsible for these excess deaths.