Vaccines Are Not More Deadly Than COVID-19 in Taiwan
The Claim
Vaccinated people deaths are higher than COVID-19 related deaths in Taiwan.
News posted on
Emerging story
A news report anchored by a New York-based NTD media outlet affiliated with Falun Gong, a Chinese religious movement, claimed that vaccinated people's deaths outnumbered COVID-19 related deaths in Taiwan.
The report was translated into multiple languages, including Arabic, by several social media users, particularly those who are anti-vaccines.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar screened the claim and figured out it was false. Taiwan is one of the countries that managed to curb the pandemic, despite a spike in cases last April. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 related deaths is below 847.
The Taiwanese Centers for Disease Control (CDC) used to compile all reports on the status of COVID-19, including unconfirmed ones.
On June 20, 2021, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), on which the CDC relies, reported that it received 67 reports of death following vaccination with the AstraZeneca vaccine. As of now, no cases of death have been confirmed to be linked to the vaccine.
Also, VAERS has not released such numbers about the deaths linked to vaccines. So the NTD numbers are unreliable and far from the context of the situation and how Taiwan’s health authorities are dealing with the pandemic.
On Monday, October 11, 2021, as mentioned in the NTD report, Taiwan had zero deaths from the disease Monday.
Furthermore, the Guardian reported that NTD is well-known for embracing right-wing narratives in the US, broadcasting disinformation, and spreading hoaxes.
