Did TGA report claim Australia had 210 COVID vaccine deaths? Fact Check

An anti-vaccination post spreading primarily in Australia claims that 210 people have died in the country as a result of the COVID-19 vaccine in 2021 as per a report by the Australian Department of Health Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA)

FALSE

An example of the post can be seen below –

The frivolous claims in the above meme are down to a pretty basic (and likely deliberate) misinterpretation of the TGA report (which can be read here.)

The claim that COVID-19 vaccines have caused 210 deaths in Austrlaia spawns from this part of the report –

To 23 May 2021, 3.6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been given in Australia. In this period, the TGA has received 210 reports of deaths following immunisation – 109 have been reported for the Pfizer vaccine, 94 for the AstraZeneca vaccine and seven where the vaccine was not specified.

This section of the report states that 210 deaths were reported following immunisation. But those promoting the anti-vaccination stance have misconstrued this sentence and interpreted it to mean there has been 210 deaths because of immunisation, despite the report not stating this at all.

With a large enough sample of people – especially elderly people – statistical analysis can be applied to determine on average how many will pass away within a certain time frame by looking at natural death rates (causes of death unrelated to COVID-19, especially causes of death frequent in old age.)

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Given these natural death rates and the incredibly large amount of people that have been vaccinated in Australia, it is, of course, a statistical inevitability that a certain amount of people (notably elderly people) will pass away soon after receiving a vaccination but their death would not be caused by that vaccination.

The TGA analysis compared natural death rates to actual death rates following immunisation to determine if there was any link where an above-average amount of people passed away soon after receiving immunisation. It is stated explicitly in their report that the observed number of deaths was actually lower than expected death rate (natural death rate) –

The TGA reviews all deaths reported after vaccination and monitors for safety signals. Part of our analysis includes comparing expected natural death rates to observed death rates following immunisation. To date, the observed number of deaths reported after vaccination is actually less than the expected number of deaths.

And as expected, the vast majority of those recorded deaths were those in the older age categories –

Most of these reports (93%) were for people 65 years of age and over, and over three quarters were 75 years of age and over.

This is to say, the observed number of deaths offers no reason to suggest that immunisation causes death, and those deaths reported after immunisation were likely down to natural death rates in Australia.

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The report goes on to say that during the timeframe of the report a further six blot clots were identified and assessed as Thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) and these could be linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine (a link that had been widely reported on). The report goes on to confirm that one death could be linked to TTS in Australia that again was linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Apart from the single Australian case in which death was linked to TTS, COVID-19 vaccines have not been found to cause death.

At the time of writing, Australia has officially recorded 910 deaths (src: John Hopkins) where COVID-19 was a contributing factor since the pandemic began, though the meme is correct in its assertion that only one of those was recorded in 2021 (at the time of writing.)

The TGA itself has already spoken about the incorrect “death counter” meme spreading on social media

The alleged posting particularly of the false information of the death counter from ‘Covid-19 vaccines’ with the department’s and TGA’s apparent endorsement is particularly concerning.

Given the fundamental claims about deaths caused by COVID-19 vaccines is a gross misinterpretation of a legitimate report, we rank the claims as false.