To date, the CDC has not identified any cases in which a COVID-19 vaccine has caused a person's death. All reported adverse events following vaccination are being investigated. Despite this, some 180 deaths have been reported to the US-government endorsed and reviewed Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), a passive surveillance system where any individual can self-report any health problem following immunization. VAERS does not require any proof to report an adverse event. Vaccine opponents have seized upon the reported 180 deaths to raise doubts about the safety protocols being used for mass COVID-19 immunization and to call for a halt to COVID-19 immunization. A longstanding criticism of VAERS by many of these same groups led them to recently create independent COVID-19 vaccine injury reporting systems, encouraging members of the public to report using these non-official systems rather than VAERS itself.

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The 2020-2021 influenza season has shown lower-than-average reports of the flu, which most experts accredit to the public health measures in place to stop the spread of COVID-19. However, based on these low numbers, rumors are spreading that health officials have been falsely reporting influenza cases as COVID-19 cases, to make the pandemic appear more severe than it is.

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Anti-vaccination advocates are making further efforts to link vaccines and injury by creating a new vaccine injury reporting system: vaxxtracker.com. Children’s Health Defense is also hosting a vaccine injury reporting system. Both sites are focused particularly on COVID-19 vaccines. These systems are not endorsed by public health authorities and have no relationship, legal or otherwise, with the US-government vaccine adverse event reporting system: the CDC and FDA-monitored Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). The creation of these new systems appears to be at least partly in response to anti-vaccination group’s distrust of public health and government authorities, and unhappiness with the administration of VAERS. Anonymity and confidentiality of submitted data into these new systems is a concern.

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On January 5th, baseball legend Hank Aaron publicly received the COVID-19 vaccine in Georgia, partially as a way of inspiring the Black community to become vaccinated. He died seventeen days later in his sleep from natural causes. A coroner clarified that he did not have COVID-19 symptoms at the time of his death. Vaccine skeptics have falsely linked his death to the vaccine, claiming it is part of a wave of vaccine-related deaths among older adults across the world (which is not true). Anti-vaccine advocates are also framing his death as evidence that the Black community in the US is correct to be hesitant of COVID-19 vaccines, and should distrust any public health outreach to the Black community. Anti-vaxxers are capitalizing on a legendary American’s death and tarnishing one of his final heroic acts, to encourage vaccination, in order to cast him as an unwitting pawn of public health authorities.

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Stories about the deaths of 30+ elderly people in Norway following COVID-19 vaccination are being widely circulated. The deaths were investigated, and Norway health officials have determined that the inoculations were not the cause of death. However, vaccine opponents believe this is another example of government cover up, and public and private sector collusion. As a result of the deaths, doctors in Norway have been instructed out of an abundance of caution to consider if someone who is frail and near the end of life is an appropriate candidate for a COVID-19 vaccine given that mild or moderate reactions such as fever or diarrhea may prove harmful to already frail individuals.

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