As per the latest Indian government report, the first vaccination-related death has been reported. To note, COVID-19 vaccines are safe and have very low risks. Vaccination benefits outweigh risks. Only one death has been reported so far due to COVID-19 vaccines.
COVID-19 vaccines have very low risks
A 68-year old fully vaccinated man died on March 31. The death has been classified as a “vaccine product-related reaction”. The report also assessed 31 severe cases since the launch of the nationwide vaccination drive in January 2021. The report, compiled by the union health ministry’s National Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFI) is out.
Out of the 31 cases investigated, 28 are deaths. one death was the result of the vaccine. It categorized 18 cases as a coincidence. Three cases were due to anaphylaxis, i.e. severe allergic reaction to the medication. Out of them, 2 hospitalized and discharged but, one died. Seven of the deaths had no link to the vaccine.
“This is the first death where causality has been established, with vaccine resulting in an anaphylaxis reaction. But compared to the overall numbers, only a small number had a severe reaction. Out of the 31 cases, only one death was due to vaccine, and among anaphylaxis cases, only two were found to be product-related. Most anaphylaxis reactions are manageable,” reported NK Arora, the advisor of AEFI.
“Overall, the benefits of vaccination are overwhelmingly greater than the small risk of harm,” announced the health ministry. After all, out of 250 million vaccinations in India, they linked just one to the vaccine.
In addition to this, “Mere reporting of deaths and hospitalizations as serious adverse events does not automatically imply that the events caused due to vaccines. Data from the first week of April shows a reporting rate of 2.7 deaths per million vaccine doses administered and 4.8 hospitalizations per million vaccine doses administered,” explained the health ministry.