COVID-19 vaccines did not cause a 17% increase in deaths in Australia in 2022

In Australia, more people died in the first eight months of 2022 from heart-related disease than they typically do in that time frame. Social media posts suggest these deaths were caused by the COVID-19 vaccine. 

A Feb. 20 Instagram video showed parts of a report by Aislin Kriukelis of 9News Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. In the video, Kriukelis said that within the first eight months of 2022, more than "10,200 Australians died due to heart-related disease, and that number is considered 17% higher than what would be." (The video cuts her off and doesn’t show her completing that sentence.)

The video includes commentary from Blair Cottrell, an Australian far-right extremist.

"Do you remember what happened in about November, December in 2021 as we were moving into 2022? Let me just jog your memory. The government joined hands with large corporations, specifically international pharmaceutical corporations, and told the Australian people that if they do not get injected with at least two new experimental mRNA mystery goo shots to protect them from COVID, then they weren’t allowed to work," Cottrell said. 

He added: "And then mysteriously within eight months there’s a 17% increase in heart attack deaths."

Cottrell originally posted the video on Gab, a social networking platform popular with conservatives.

The Instagram post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

In her full Jan. 20 report, Kriukelis said the 10,200 deaths due to heart-related disease were 17% higher "than what would be considered normal." She reported that health experts said the pandemic had "increased risk factors."

"Some studies show that some people have a higher likelihood of heart disease or stroke after COVID-19 infection," Kriukelis said. "Then there’s the fact that some people delayed medical treatment and therefore delayed going and getting their usual health checkups and getting diagnosis and then treatment, and then to a lesser extent, there’s the fact that hospitals were extremely busy during this time."

A Jan. 21 article by The Sydney Morning Herald cited a mortality data analysis by the Actuaries Institute in Australia. 

The analysis posted Dec. 7, 2022, by the COVID-19 mortality working group of Actuaries Digital, the online magazine of the Actuaries Institute, looked into excess deaths in the first eight months of 2022. It showed that from January to August 2022, there were 10,220 deaths from ischemic heart disease, 17% higher than they had predicted. (Ischemic heart disease refers to heart problems caused by narrowed heart arteries, which can lead to heart attacks.)

The authors said delays in emergency and routine care were likely causes for an increase in non-COVID-19 excess deaths. 

They said that the number of vaccine-related deaths "has been small." A Nov. 17, 2022 vaccine safety report by the Australian government’s Therapeutic Goods Administration showed that of the 944 reported deaths following vaccination from February 2021 to Nov. 13, 2022, only 14 were linked to the COVID-19 vaccination.

Thirteen of these deaths — eight associated with thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome cases, two linked to Guillain-Barre syndrome, two related to rare conditions involving the nervous system and one case of immune thrombocytopenia — occurred after the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine. 

One death — related to myocarditis — occurred after a booster dose of the Moderna vaccine.

These are serious but rare side effects of vaccines. 

As stated in the Australian Government’s Healthdirect, thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome is a very rare side effect of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. According to Healthdirect, "It’s important to note that only a link has been established. The AstraZeneca vaccine has not been proven to cause TTS."

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A January 2022 vaccine safety report said there is also uncertainty around the link between fatal cases of Guillain-Barre Syndrome and the AstraZeneca vaccine, as the condition also occurs in unvaccinated people.

Myocarditis is a known but very rare side effect of Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines, and immune thrombocytopenia is a rare side effect of AstraZeneca.

The Sydney Morning Herald article concerning the 17% increase in ischemic heart disease deaths noted that experts said the numbers were "concerning but not surprising."

"For years, cardiac deaths have been the leading cause of death in Australia. The pandemic has only increased the risk factors," the article said.

An Instagram post claimed that in Australia, a "17% increase in heart attack deaths" in the first eight months of 2022 is linked to COVID-19 vaccination.

The post used cuts from a news report on the increased rate of deaths caused by ischemic heart disease. The reporting did not list the COVID-19 vaccine among likely causes for the surge and instead mentioned delayed routine and emergency treatment, as well as the virus itself. 

Australian researchers have also said that medical treatment delays likely caused an increase in non-COVID-19 excess deaths in 2022.

We rate this claim False.

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