It is misleading to link British compensation for damage caused by vaccines to deaths from Covid – 06/11/2023 – Equilibrium and Health

It is a misleading post that links the fact that the British government has published information on its blog about the payment scheme for damage caused by vaccines to a report by the UKHSA (UK Health Security Agency), the British health authority, according to which “the vaccinated are the majority among deaths from Covid-19”. The post misinforms by suggesting that vaccines against the new coronavirus are not safe. Compensation has existed since at least 1997 (long before the pandemic) and has not been recently announced, as some people who shared the misinformation believed.

The text, as verified by the Comprova Project, leads to a misinterpretation of the data by highlighting the higher number of deaths among those vaccinated when most of the population has already been immunized. “It’s not that vaccinated people are more likely to die, it’s because there are more vaccinated people than unvaccinated people. There will always be some infections that lead to death because no vaccine is 100% effective, but a small proportion of a very large population ( vaccinated) is generally greater than a larger proportion of a smaller (unvaccinated) population,” the UKHSA explained to the report.

Contents making this misleading claim —that vaccinated people died more than non-vaccinated ones— have been circulating since last year and one of them has already been verified by Comprova.

Misleading, for Comprova, is all content removed from the original context and used in another so that its meaning undergoes changes; that uses inaccurate data or that induces an interpretation different from the author’s intention; content that is confusing, with or without the deliberate intent to cause harm.

Reach

Comprova investigates suspicious content with greater reach on social networks. Published by the Brasil sem Medo website, the post was viewed more than 13,800 times on Twitter and shared 178 times by June 9. One of the profiles that shared the misleading content on Instagram had more than 19,400 interactions to date.

How do we check

Using Google, we did a search for the main allegation of the post (UK announced payment of vaccine damages) and located a recent post on the vaccine damage payment model. Next, we seek to know how the policy works and since when it exists. The next step was to find out when the vaccine against Covid-19 was inserted into the system. We then move on to the second allegation (March data show that the majority of those killed by Covid in the country are vaccinated) and consult recent reports from the UK Health Security Agency on vaccination. We also contacted the agency, via email, to request more details on the two subjects. Finally, we look for the authors of the posts.

Indemnity

Despite a recent statement on how the vaccine damage payment scheme works on the Department for Health and Social Care blog, the policy is not new to Britons. There is news from 2005 reporting payments to vaccine-disabled patients since at least 1997.

The statement to which the verified posts refer explains that a one-off, tax-free payment of £120,000 is provided on “very rare occasions” that a vaccine has caused severe disability. Right at the beginning of the newsletter, it is highlighted that all vaccines used in the country have undergone robust clinical tests and have met the strict safety, efficacy and quality standards of the Medicines and Health Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA, its acronym in English) .

This includes the vaccine against Covid-19, added to the program in December 2020, even before its use was approved in the country. At the time, the government reported that immunizers would only be implanted when they met strict safety, efficacy and quality standards and were approved by the regulatory body.

The British government maintains two official pages (1 and 2) on payments, including informing that they can be made for damage caused by 18 other vaccines, in addition to the one that fights the coronavirus. Among them are immunizations commonly applied throughout people’s lives, such as those that prevent influenza, measles, polio, smallpox and tetanus.

Bigger number

The text shared on Twitter mentions that a report published by the UK Health Agency pointed out that vaccinated people are the majority among deaths from Covid-19 during the month of March this year. The publication adds that the period analyzed was from February 28 to March 27, but this statement is incorrect.

The agency informed the report that since the report published on April 6 —which brings data from the previous month— the section with records on the vaccination status of cases, deaths and hospitalizations with Covid-19 is no longer included. The body explained that this is because on 1 April 2022 the UK government ended providing free testing to the general public and the change affected the ability to robustly monitor Covid cases by vaccination status.

A statement on the matter was posted on the agency’s blog. It informs that data from previous reports show that hospitalization and death rates are substantially lower in fully vaccinated people, in all age groups, and it is clear that vaccines provide a high level of protection against more serious effects of the disease.

The report consulted the report published in April and confirmed the information provided by the agency. The document cites data collected between February 27 and March 26 – a date close to the one cited by the website –, however, they do not refer to deaths of people with Covid, but to hospitalization rates for the disease among vaccinated people.

The British agency highlighted that, in the context of very high vaccination coverage in the population, even with a highly effective vaccine, it is natural that a large proportion of cases, hospitalizations and deaths occur in vaccinated individuals, because the proportion of the vaccinated population is greater.

Where did misinformation come from?

The profile that disseminated misinformation on the networks was that of the Brasil sem Medo website. On June 5, the conservative page published a text entitled “British government announces €120,000 compensation for vaccine victims”. The misinformation starts with the title, as the amount is £120,000, not euros.

When sharing the text on Twitter, the profile related the compensation to the vaccination against Covid-19 by including the caption “In March of this year, a report published by the United Kingdom Health Agency pointed out that vaccinated people are the majority among deaths from Covid -19”. Here, again, there is another error: the linked text about the deaths is from Brasil sem Medo itself, on April 14, 2022, and not from this year.

It’s not the first time the site has spread misinformation. Comprova has already verified five other contents disseminated by them (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5) —of these, four deny proven effective measures against the spread of Covid-19.

In the “About” tab of the site, whose logo is Novo BSM, there is no information about the publication. In verification of 2021, Comprova stated that the platform identified itself as “the largest conservative newspaper in Brazil”. On networks like Twitter and Instagram, the page defines itself as “the only stream of news and analysis on politics and culture, declaredly conservative”.

Still on the website, in the “Authors” tab, the name of Olavo de Carvalho appears, who became known as a Bolsonarist guru and died last year. The site republishes his old texts.

What the person responsible for the publication says

Brasil Sem Medo was approached, but did not respond until the publication of this verification. An Instagram profile that used the material and went viral also did not return contact.

What can we learn from this check

It is possible to observe evidence of misinformation when a text seems to avoid presenting details of the subject addressed. In the case verified here, the content does not contextualize the information regarding British vaccination policies and within the scope of Covid-19.

First, the site causes alarm when it reports that the United Kingdom has disclosed that it is compensating victims of side effects caused by vaccines and by associating this information with deaths caused by the new coronavirus. The text omits that these payments have existed for at least 20 years and are also available for other immunizers. The text also ignores information from the British health agency that cases of serious side effects are rare.

Then, the author of the publication cites data on deaths among vaccinated people, ignoring the guidance given by the source of the information that they should be read with due respect for the proportionality between vaccinated and unvaccinated people in the country.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, both the disease and the vaccines developed to combat it have been targets of misinformation, so it is important to redouble attention to content that addresses these two topics. Secure information can be consulted with regulatory agencies, health agencies and the professional press.

why do we investigate

Comprova monitors suspicious content published on social networks and messaging apps about public policies and elections at the federal level and opens investigations for those publications that have achieved greater reach and engagement. You can also suggest checks via WhatsApp +55 11 97045-4984. Suggestions and questions related to questionable content can also be sent to Sheet via WhatsApp 11 99486-0293.

Other checks on the topic

Comprova has already checked several claims that try to discredit the effectiveness of vaccines against Covid, associating them with deaths. It has already been shown, for example, that the proportion of deaths from the disease is higher among non-vaccinated people in the United Kingdom, unlike what a post implies, that the site deceives readers by using a sensational title about the death of immunized people and being misleading that immunising has caused an increase in deaths among children.