Pfizer's Document Reveals Deaths Caused by COVID-19 Vaccine? No!
The document released in 2021 by Pfizer does not mention that these deaths were linked to COVID-19 vaccines.
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A claim is going viral on social media which states that Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine has caused serious side-effects to more than 42,000 people and also resulted in 1,223 deaths.
The claim also states that Pfizer recently revealed data worth nine pages which listed down the possible side effects noticed in people who got vaccinated by Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine.
(Archives of similar claims can be seen here and here.)
What's the truth?: The claim has misrepresented the number of deaths by falsely linking it to the Pfizer vaccine.
The report published in 2021 stated that these deaths were due to natural causes or other serious health problems and had no causal link to the vaccine.
How did we find out the truth?: We looked for a recent report published by Pfizer but were unable to find any. We then found a report published by Pfizer in 2021.
The report was submitted by Pfizer for its Biological License Application (BLA) to the United States Federal Drug Administration (FDA).
The report compiled data from 63 countries from 1 December 2020 to 28 February 2021.
The report came to light for it's nine pages of “adverse events of special interest”.
However, the report does not mention anywhere that these potential side-effects are directly linked to COVID-19 vaccine.
This list of side-effects have been compiled with voluntary reports from national reporting systems, for example, Brighton Collaboration (SPEAC), ACCESS protocol, US CDC (preliminary list of AESI for VAERS surveillance) and Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) (unpublished guideline).
A screenshot from the report.
(Source: 2021 Pfizer report/ Screenshot)
The report mentioned that underlying medical conditions could have caused the deaths.
Statement from Pfizer about this report: News agency Reuters spoke with a Pfizer spokesperson who said these reported side effects might not have a casual link to the vaccine.
They also added that these deaths might be due to "an underlying disease, past medical history, concomitant medication or that these 'adverse events' might be purely coincidental".
FDA's spokesperson also told Reuters that these reports post-vaccination does not mean that the vaccination is the caused a health problem.
Conclusion: The claim stating Pfizer vaccination leading to several deaths and serious side effects is misleading.
We have also reached out to FDA and Pfizer; the story will be update once we receive a response.
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