A segment from one of Fox News’ daytime “straight news” programs cited a study to claim that the COVID-19 vaccine caused millions of “excess deaths” in the U.S. The journal that published the study had clarified nearly a week earlier that this interpretation was false.
The study, published June 3, 2024, in the British Medical Journal, found that excess mortality rates in Western nations were high from 2020 to 2022 “despite the implementation of containment measures and COVID-19 vaccines.” The researchers also encouraged governments to examine the underlying causes of excess mortality to inform public health policy.
During the June 12 edition of America Reports, Fox anchor John Roberts characterized the findings differently: “A new study suggests COVID vaccines could be at least partially to blame for more than three million excess deaths in the United States and other countries from 2020 to 2022.”
In the report, chief Washington correspondent Mike Emanuel used the study to bolster a series of soundbites from Fox News’ cadre of misinformation-pushing doctors who blamed the excess deaths on the vaccines and lockdowns. “Yet,” Emanuel noted, “the overwhelming message from public health officials was ‘you must get the shot.’"
Last week, multiple other right-wing media outlets (and at least one conservative British outlet) repeated the false narrative blaming the vaccine for excess deaths, prompting the British Medical Journal to issue a statement correcting the misinterpretation of the study’s findings.
Full statement:
Various news outlets have claimed that this research implies a direct causal link between COVID-19 vaccination and mortality. This study does not establish any such link. The researchers looked only at trends in excess mortality over time, not its causes. While the researchers recognise that side effects are reported after vaccination, the research does not support the claim that vaccines are a major contributory factor to excess deaths since the start of the pandemic. Vaccines have, in fact, been instrumental in reducing the severe illness and death associated with COVID-19 infection.
The message of the research is that understanding overall excess mortality since the COVID-19 pandemic is crucial for future health policy, but that identifying specific causes is complex due to varying national data quality and reporting methods.
“Various news outlets have claimed that this research implies a direct causal link between COVID-19 vaccination and mortality. This study does not establish any such link.” The statement continued, “Vaccines have, in fact, been instrumental in reducing the severe illness and death associated with COVID-19 infection.”
