Vaccines have not killed "twice as many kids" as those that were killed by COVID

In a widely shared newsletter, Steve Kirsch, a man who promotes himself as an entrepreneur and technology expert, stated that "they've now killed close to twice as many kids from the vaccine as have died from COVID."  He's also repeated this claim in an interview on The New American, a conservative news site. We find this claim false. There is no confirmed evidence of a COVID-19 vaccine causing the death of even one child.

Kirsch says he uses data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), an open system for accepting unverified reports about possible vaccine side effects. However, as stated on the VAERS website, "VAERS is a passive reporting system, meaning it relies on individuals to send in reports of their experiences to CDC and FDA. VAERS is not designed to determine if a vaccine caused a health problem."

As of December 22, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data on deaths involving COVID-19 among children shows that around 790 people age 0-18 years have died from COVID-19. There have been no verified deaths of children as a result of the mRNA vaccines. 

The CDC has posted the following information on COVID-19 Vaccines for Children and Teens...

Before recommending COVID-19 vaccination for children, scientists conducted clinical trials with thousands of children and no serious safety concerns were identified. The FDA gave the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine emergency authorization to use in children ages 5-15 years old and full approval to use in people ages 16 years and older. Learn more about the process of developing, authorizing, and approving COVID-19 vaccines.

The benefits of COVID-19 vaccination outweigh the known and potential risks. Get a COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 years and older as soon as you can.

As reported by Tom Kertscher on Politifact...

More than 485 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered in the United States from Dec. 14, 2020, through Dec. 13, 2021. During this time, VAERS received 10,483 reports of death (0.0022%) among people who received a COVID-19 vaccine.

But reports of adverse events to VAERS following vaccination, including deaths, do not necessarily mean that a vaccine caused a health problem. Anyone can submit a report of an adverse event but the reports themselves are not verified.

The CDC says a review of reports indicates a causal relationship between the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine and TTS, a rare event that causes blood clots with low platelets, with a total of nine deaths of adults causally associated with that vaccine. The youngest was 28.

In a blog post by Children's Hospital Los Angeles, physicians—Jennifer Su, MD, a pediatric cardiologist, and Michael Neely, MD, MSc, FCP, Chief of Infectious Diseases, discuss why vaccinating your child is still by far the safest choice.

Health officials have observed an increased risk for heart inflammation in adolescents and young adults who have recently received either the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines. Most of these cases have been in teen boys and young men, ages 12 to 29. The Pfizer vaccine is authorized for use in patients as young as 5 years old; Moderna is authorized in patients 18 years and older.

Both myocarditis and pericarditis have been reported. Myocarditis is inflammation of the heart itself, and pericarditis is inflammation of the heart’s outer lining.

The risk of this reaction is very low—roughly 0.01%, or 1 in 10,000 cases. As of Nov. 21, more than 434 million doses of mRNA vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna) had been administered in the U.S., with over 15 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine given to people ages 12 to 18. Children 5 to 11 years old became eligible to receive a lower dose vaccine in early November 2021, and in the studies of more than 3,000 children ages 5 to 11 who received the Pfizer vaccine, none developed myocarditis.