FALSE: 2-month-old baby dies after receiving Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine

At a glance

• Claim: A two-month-old baby died after receiving Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, as reported in the United States Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) case number 1015467 released on July 1, 2022.
• Rating: FALSE
• The facts: The website cited by the claim is not the official VAERS website. According to official CDC’s VAERS Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (WONDER), the 2-month-old baby with VAERS ID 1015467 did not die after receiving the vaccine.
• Why we fact-checked this: The claim was emailed to Rappler for verification.

Complete details

An article published on June 13 by the website Global Research claims that a two-month-old baby died due to cardiac arrest after receiving Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, allegedly reported in the United States Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) case number 1015467 released on July 1, 2022.

This is false.

The website cited by Global Research as the source of the VAERS case of the two-month-old baby, MedAlerts.org, is not the official website of VAERS. According to official CDC’s VAERS Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (WONDER), the 2-month-old baby with VAERS ID 1015467 did not die after receiving the vaccine. The report also said that although the baby did experience cardiac arrest, the baby’s condition stabilized and was transferred for further medical treatment.

MedAlerts.org is under an organization called the National Vaccine Information Center, which an investigative report by The Washington Post says is the oldest anti-vaccine advocacy group in the United States.

The VAERS website reminds the public that the US VAERS reports are submitted by the public and “may contain information that is incomplete, inaccurate, coincidental, or unverifiable.”

Reuters debunked a similar claim in May 2021. – Lorenz Pasion/Rappler.com

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