Children Are Not More Likely To Die From Vaccines Than COVID
The Claim
The coronavirus vaccines are 50 times more likely to kill a child than COVID-19 itself.
News posted on
Emerging story
In early June, Dr. Michael Yeadon appeared on the podcast Bannon’s War Room. During the interview, Dr. Yeadon claimed that coronavirus vaccines were 50 times more likely to kill a child than COVID-19 itself.
A clip from the recording of this podcast then appeared on Rumble, where it has gained over 266,000 views within one month. On social media, users who have shared Yeadon’s claim have gained thousands of interactions.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar’s investigation found that Dr. Yeadon is making his claim without evidence. He has a history of making false claims in regards to coronavirus.
At present, we could not identify any instance of a coronavirus vaccine being connected to the death of a child anywhere in the world. For comparison, since the beginning of the pandemic, at least 300 children have died from coronavirus itself in the U.S. While this number is small compared to the overall number of coronavirus deaths to date, it is still higher than childhood deaths from influenza, which was 188 in the flu season of 2019 to 2020.
The Pfizer vaccine is now approved for children aged 12 and older. The CDC has stated that this approval came after extensive clinical trials in children aged 12 to 15, and showed no safety concerns. Additionally, a range of other leading medical institutions, such as the Mayo Clinic, have confirmed that the Pfizer vaccine is safe for children aged 12 to 15 and that the vaccine was 100% effective in preventing COVID-19 among this age group.
Two producers of vaccines, Pfizer and Moderna, are currently running vaccine trials within clinical settings upon children aged under 12 in the U.S. However, the results of these trials are not expected to be released until the fall. The producers are testing the vaccines upon children in an incredibly safe manner. For instance, Pfizer has stated that it is testing vaccines at doses of 10 milligrams for children aged five to 11 and three milligrams for children between six months and four.
What may make some people believe that Dr. Yeadon has knowledge that others do not is that he is described in Bannon’s War Room and other sources as the former vice president of Pfizer. However, other sources have stated that Yeadon held the lower position as the vice president and chief scientific officer for Pfizer’s U.K.-based allergy and the respiratory unit, which closed in 2011. This is backed up by his LinkedIn page, which lists a number of roles at Pfizer, the most recent of which ended in 2011.
He also has a history of making false claims about coronavirus. Reuters states that Yeadon claimed in November 2020 that the pandemic was mostly over. And in October 2020, he claimed that the U.K.’s number of coronavirus deaths would not increase far above 45,000. In July 2021, the U.K coronavirus death toll stood at over 128,000. Reuters also notes that in Spring, 2020, Yeadon claimed that it was unlikely that the U.K. coronavirus death toll would ever reach 40,000.
