This was going to be today’s big news story, but the Project Veritas revelations have over-shadowed it, but, in the scheme of things, this is a shocker. A peer-reviewed study published in a mainstream journal, BMC Infectious Diseases, has estimated that from survey data, that the Covid vaxxes have killed 278,000 Americans. Vax critics give a very much higher figure, some seeing the deaths as in the millions. However, as a rhetorical point, this study shows that even in the terms of reference of the mainstream, the claim that deaths from the Covid vaxxes are exceedingly rare, does not stand up to scrutiny.

https://igorchudov.substack.com/p/covid-vaccines-killed-278000-americans

“A new peer-reviewed study by Skidmore et al. was published in a prestigious journal.

It commissioned a survey that asked people several questions about their Covid and vaccination experience. The survey was conducted during the previous winter, so it is based on 2021 experiences.

It estimated, based on responses provided, that Covid vaccines killed 278,000 Americans:

The authors use a reputable polling company Dynata.

The sample was obtained by Dynata, the world’s largest first-party data platform, and is representative for the US American population [6]. The sampling using Dynata is based on opt-in sampling, respondents deliver high quality data, they are diverse and have community norms of honesty and accuracy [7]. The survey was opened to the Dynata panel until the required number of responses was obtained from each category of the stratification variables age, sex, and income, as required for a balanced response set.

The article demonstrated the authors tried to do a good job and controlled for confounding variables. For example, do political views or vaccination status create a bias in reporting vaccine deaths? It turns out that, indeed, they do:

Estimated nationwide COVID-19 vaccine fatalities based on the Democrat, Republican and Independent subsets are 109,564, 463,444 and 247,867, respectively. With the vaccinated and unvaccinated subgroups, estimated COVID-19 vaccine fatalities are 110,942 and 659,995.

This discrepancy suggests that the estimates of the total number of vaccine fatalities cannot be very precise, and the authors point that out very honestly.

They attempted to control such confounders:

Adjustments were made for the following confounders: age, sex, political affiliation (Democrat, Republican, Independent), degree of urbanization using respondents’ self-assessment of whether they live in urban, suburban or rural areas, race (Caucasian, African American, Hispanic, Asian, Native American/Pacific Islander, Other), educational attainment as defined by the US Census [11], sources of information about COVID-19 (mainstream news, alternative news/other, peer-reviewed scientific literature, official government sources), COVID-19 illness problems in social circles, and COVID-19 inoculation problems in social circles.

The authors say: what is the chance that the CDC-reported number of vaccine deaths in VAERS (8,023 at the time the article was written) is the true number, and the much higher number of 278,000 is a product of an accidental statistical error?

They explain that the outcome is 28 standard deviations away, and therefore CDC’s VAERS number is understated. Thus, the CDC’s “null hypothesis” is rejected:

This hypothesis is tested using state-by-state VAERS data on reported COVID-19 vaccine-associated deaths and COVID-19 illness fatalities. The alternative hypothesis (Ha) is: X = CDC Ratio < Survey Ratio. The mean (u) and standard deviation (σ) of the ratio of vaccine fatalities to COVID-19 fatalities from the state-by-state data are u = 0.0136 and σ = 0.0111. The probability that the Survey Ratio > CDC Ratio = X is P(CDC Ratio > 0.345). With P(CDC Ratio > 0.345) = 0 and a Z-score = 28.86; the null hypothesis is rejected.

So, out of 243 million who received Covid vaccines by the end of Dec 2021, the study estimates that 278,000 died due to vaccines. This estimate suggests that one out of 874 persons is killed by Covid vaccines.

I know one such person, my friend’s nephew. He received a J&J vaccine around May 20, 2021, and died suddenly shortly thereafter. His death is NOT in VAERS.

Perfectly in Line with Late 2022 Rasmussen Survey

A recent Rasmussen survey shows that 28% of all adults know someone who died due to Covid vaccines.”

https://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12879-023-07998-3

“The role of social circle COVID-19 illness and vaccination experiences in COVID-19 vaccination decisions: an online survey of the United States population”

• Mark Skidmore

BMC Infectious Diseases volume 23, Article number: 51 (2023) 

Abstract

Background

Around the world, policymakers have clearly communicated that COVID-19 vaccination programs need to be accepted by a large proportion of the population to allow life return to normal. However, according to the Center for Disease Control, about 31% of the United States population had not completed the primary vaccination series as of November 2022.

Aims

The primary aim of this work is to identify the factors associated by American citizens with the decision to be vaccinated against COVID-19. In addition, the proportion of fatal events from COVID-19 vaccinations was estimated and compared with the data in the VAERS database.

Methods

An online survey of COVID-19 health experiences was conducted. Information was collected regarding reasons for and against COVID-19 inoculations, experiences with COVID-19 illness and COVID-19 inoculations by survey respondents and their social circles. Logit regression analyses were carried out to identify factors influencing the likelihood of being vaccinated.

Results

A total of 2840 participants completed the survey between December 18 and 23, 2021. 51% (1383 of 2840) of the participants were female and the mean age was 47 (95% CI 46.36–47.64) years. Those who knew someone who experienced a health problem from COVID-19 were more likely to be vaccinated (OR: 1.309, 95% CI 1.094–1.566), while those who knew someone who experienced a health problem following vaccination were less likely to be vaccinated (OR: 0.567, 95% CI 0.461–0.698). 34% (959 of 2840) reported that they knew at least one person who had experienced a significant health problem due to the COVID-19 illness. Similarly, 22% (612 of 2840) of respondents indicated that they knew at least one person who had experienced a severe health problem following COVID-19 vaccination. With these survey data, the total number of fatalities due to COVID-19 inoculation may be as high as 278,000 (95% CI 217,330–332,608) when fatalities that may have occurred regardless of inoculation are removed.

Conclusion

Knowing someone who reported serious health issues either from COVID-19 or from COVID-19 vaccination are important factors for the decision to get vaccinated. The large difference in the possible number of fatalities due to COVID-19 vaccination that emerges from this survey and the available governmental data should be further investigated.”