Official Covid vaccine death count 50% higher than thought

Death data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics reveals Covid vaccines as underlying cause of more deaths than recognised by the drug safety regulator

In a surprising revelation from Australia’s recent excess mortality inquiry, the nation’s official Covid vaccine death count is 50% higher than the number touted in the press.

To date, Australia’s drug safety regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), has acknowledged only 14 deaths causally linked to the Covid vaccines, despite there being more than 1,000 reported deaths to the Database of Adverse Event Notifications (DAEN).

However, testimony from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) to the recent excess mortality inquiry reveals that the ABS officially acknowledges 21 Covid vaccine deaths, seven more than the TGA’s count of 14.

In a public hearing for the inquiry in June of this year, an ABS spokesperson acknowledged 16 deaths where a Covid vaccine was the sole underlying cause of death, and five deaths where the vaccines were an underlying cause of death with a pre-existing condition, for the years 2021-2022.

The ABS confirmed these figures in an email, clarifying the process for attributing cause of death in its reporting:

“The source of all cause of death data for the ABS is either the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death for doctor certified deaths, or the pathology report or coronial findings for coroner referred deaths (accessed via the National Coronial Information System). This includes deaths which may be caused by the COVID-19 vaccine.”

A spokesperson for the TGA responded by email to my question about the variance between its figures and the ABS, stating,

“The TGA has confirmed that all the COVID-19 vaccine-related deaths included in the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Causes of Death reports are known to the TGA and have been included in the TGA’s safety monitoring. The small difference in numbers is due to differences in how the 2 agencies categorise deaths as being related to a COVID-19 vaccine.”

While this revelation takes the official Covid vaccine death tally in Australia to 21, the official figures fall far short of the probable number of deaths associated with Covid vaccination.

The official Covid vaccine death count does not include Amy Sedgewick, who developed fatal adverse symptoms following vaccination, but whose death certificate states ‘no known cause of death.’

It does not include Caitlin Gotze, whose autopsy showed myocarditis, but whose death was attributed to asthma, despite no medical history of chronic asthma.

Amy Sedgewick, age 24 (left) and Caitlin Gotze, age 23 (right) died after Pfizer Covid vaccination.

The official Covid vaccine death count does not include the children and young adults who died of cardiac arrests after Covid vaccination, whose causality assessments the TGA hid from the public disclosure log because “disclosure of the documents could undermine public confidence.”

As at 22 August 2024, there are 1,038 deaths and 140,899 adverse events reported to the DAEN in relation to Covid vaccines since the rollout began, in February 2021.

The under reporting factor (URF) for predominantly passive surveillance systems such as the DAEN (and affiliated state and territory systems) is estimated in the academic literature (here, here and here) to be between 10-100 fold. This means that the actual rate of deaths after Covid vaccination in Australia may be between 10,000 - 100,000 (given that Australia experienced between 30,000-40,000 cumulative excess deaths between 2021-2023, the upper bound is unlikely). The TGA has not produced its own estimate of the URF for the Covid vaccine program.

28% of deaths reported to the DAEN after Covid vaccination occurred within one week of the shot, and the majority occurred within six weeks, TGA figures show.

Reports of death in people who have been vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine 01 December 2021 - 31 December 2022, inclusive. Source: TGA FOI 4205.

Approximately 22,000 of the adverse events reported in relation to Covid vaccines are “serious” in nature, the TGA advises.

As the TGA does not attempt to determine causality of serious adverse events, and does not do any follow-up of reported injuries, it is unknown how many Australians with serious Covid vaccine injuries have since died.

In my time volunteering for Jab Injuries Australia, I was dismayed to learn that a lot of Covid vaccine-injured Australians had not reported their life-altering adverse events or deaths of loved ones to the DAEN. Since then, when I find out about someone’s adverse event or a death soon after vaccination, I always ask if it has been reported. Almost always, the answer is no.

Source: X

The most common explanation offered for not reporting injuries is that people aren’t 100% certain that their injury (or a loved one’s death) was caused by the vaccine.

It’s important to know that the TGA “strongly encourages consumers and health professionals to report suspected adverse events, even if there is only a very small chance a vaccine was the cause.” (emphasis mine)

If you have experienced an adverse event or witnessed the death of a loved one soon after vaccination (or any medicine for that matter), I cannot stress enough how important it is to report it to your government’s safety surveillance database.

Otherwise, the government does not know that your injury exists, and deaths will be misattributed to other causes in official reporting.

*Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that Caitlin Gotze had vaccine-induced myocarditis, however while a forensic pathology opinion stated there was no evidence of a systemic cause, and that the Pfizer vaccine may have induced the myocardial damage, it did not unequivocally state that the vaccine was the cause.

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How to report an injury or death following vaccination

Australians can report injuries and deaths following vaccination to the DAEN here.

Americans can report injuries and deaths following vaccination to the VAERS here.

Britons can report injuries and deaths following vaccination to the Yellow Card system here.

Europeans can report injuries and deaths following vaccination to the EudraVigilance system here.

For other countries, search ‘report my adverse event’ and your country name.

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