Tuesday, May 11, 2021
The Safety of US COVID-19 Vaccines Revisited
After I finished my "The Safety of US COVID-19 Vaccines" post I learned that last week Tucker Carlson had done an episode on the same subject, including the use of VAERS data.
I don't typically agree with everything Carlson says and he is sometimes less careful than I think he should be. However, his segment on "How many Americans have died after taking the COVID vaccine?" is almost perfect. Don't trust me, watch it yourself.
What I want to focus on in this post is the outpouring of dishonest criticism from the rest of the mainstream media in the wake of Carlson's piece. In an all too typical example, rather than refute Carlson with relevant facts, National Review contributor Pradheep J. Shanker tweeted:
Tucker, being an idiot, took that number of deaths, and says they are related to the vaccine.
This, of course, is nonsense. But again, gullible people will believe these things, because the math and science isn’t exactly crystal clear.
In fact, Carlson simply and accurately reported what is in the VAERS data. Here's a representative passage:
... So the question is how do those numbers compare to the death rate from the coronavirus vaccines now being distributed across the country? That’s worth knowing.
We checked today. Here’s the answer, which comes from the same set of government numbers that we just listed: Between late December of 2020, and last month, a total of 3,362 people apparently died after getting the COVID vaccines in the United States. Three thousand, three hundred and sixty-two — that’s an average of 30 people every day. So, what does that add up to? By the way, that reporting period ended on April 23. We don’t have numbers past that, we’re not quite up to date. But we can assume that another 360 people have died in the 12 days since. That is a total of 3,722 deaths. Almost four thousand people died after getting the COVID vaccines. The actual number is almost certainly much higher than that — perhaps vastly higher.
The data we just cited come from the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System — VAERS — which is managed by the CDC and the FDA. [VAERS] has received a lot of criticism over the years, some of it founded. Some critics have argued for a long time that [VAERS] undercounts vaccine injuries. A report submitted to the Department of Health and Human Services in 2010 concluded that "fewer than one percent of vaccine adverse events are reported"* by the [VAERS] system. Fewer than one percent. So what is the real number of people who apparently have been killed or injured by the vaccine? Well, we don’t know that number. Nobody does, and we’re not going to speculate about it ...
The faux "fact checkers" at Politifact gave Carlson a rating of "false" on their "Truth-o-Meter". How did they justify their rating? Here a sample: "... VAERS data is considered unreliable for drawing causal conclusions. And dying after a vaccine is not the same thing as dying because of the vaccine."
I listened to the segment twice, Carlson did not draw a causal connection and never implied or claimed dying after a vaccine is the same thing as dying because of the vaccine. In short, Politifact's case against Carlson is a classic straw man argument—they thrash away at things Carlson didn't say.
Near the close of their article, Politifact says: "The CDC analyzed the VAERS death reports and concluded that there's no 'causal link to COVID-19 vaccines.' " I rate this claim mostly false. What the CDC actually says is: "A review of available clinical information, including death certificates, autopsy, and medical records has not established a causal link to COVID-19 vaccines" (emphasis in original).
The CDC did NOT say "there's no 'causal link to COVID-19 vaccines' ", as Politifact claims. They said a causal link had not been established but they also did not rule out a causal link. It's also worth noting that the CDC provides no further information about who conducted their "review" or how it was conducted. There's no link to any documentation of the review.
* The report Carlson reference is from 2011, here's more context from it:
Adverse events from drugs and vaccines are common, but underreported. Although 25% of ambulatory patients experience an adverse drug event, less than 0.3% of all adverse drug events and 1-13% of serious events are reported to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Likewise, fewer than 1% of vaccine adverse events are reported. Low reporting rates preclude or slow the identification of “problem” drugs and vaccines that endanger public health. New surveillance methods for drug and vaccine adverse effects are needed.
Labels: COVID-19, government, health, media, medicine, science, technology, Tucker Carlson
