‘No question’: COVID-19 vaccines are safe, health leaders say after Kansas obit claim
.jpg "Experts have said it’s important to hold onto your COVID vaccination card. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)")
Kansas City area health leaders took an opportunity Thursday to emphasize the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine after an unconfirmed report that a Kansas woman died due to a reaction.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment is investigating after a 68-year-old woman experienced anaphylaxis while in the waiting period following a dose of the coronavirus vaccine. The woman’s obituary said she died “from a reaction to the Covid vaccine,” but hospital officials said no cause of death has been determined.
“Until the investigation is complete, it is premature to assign a specific cause of death,” KDHE spokeswoman Kristi Zears said in a statement.
Officials at the University of Kansas Health Systems also emphasized the importance of knowing the facts of this individual case. Chief Medical Officer Steve Stites said he would need to know more in order to consider the circumstances.
According to KDHE, the woman got the vaccine in Jefferson County and the local health department said appropriate CDC guidelines were followed. The department did not specify which vaccine the woman received.
During the waiting period, she began experiencing anaphylaxis. She was transported to a hospital in Topeka where she later died.
According to the CDC’s website, “anaphylaxis after COVID-19 vaccination is rare and occurred in approximately 2 to 5 people per million vaccinated in the United States based on events reported to VAERS. This kind of allergic reaction almost always occurs within 30 minutes after vaccination.”
Vaccine-related deaths are generally quite rare. A medical study published in 2015 said they are among the safest and most rigorously tested products used in the health care industry. The same study also found that during 2014 and 2015 many claims of vaccine-related deaths were later discovered to be false.
The local health department entered the woman’s information into the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, KDHE said. The system tracks reactions and deaths following vaccination.
The Centers for Disease Control said a review of death certificates, autopsies and medical records showed no evidence that vaccinations contributed to patient deaths. The CDC said the vaccine is safe and effective.
During Thursday’s briefing, KU officials also noted that most obituaries are written by family members and were hesitant to believe that a medical examiner would list the vaccine as the cause of death on a death certificate.
Stites said the medical center has given over 50,000 individual shots. Millions have been distributed across the world.
“We’re just not seeing deaths from vaccines,” Stites said.
He said he would be concerned that someone might hear the story and be worried.
“There are millions of people who have died of COVID-19 and to date, no proven evidence ... here or anywhere ... that can show that you died of the vaccine,” Stites said.
He continued: “There is no question that vaccines save millions and millions and millions of lives relative to the number who die.”
This story was originally published March 25, 2021 at 6:13 PM.
