Within the first five weeks of administering COVID vaccines in Alaska, at least 111 Alaska residents have suffered adverse reactions and at least five of these people have died. The information, which goes through Jan. 22, was reported on the VAERS website, which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control uses to track vaccine injuries across the nation.
The actual number of adverse reactions is likely much higher. According to a 2010 Harvard study on VAERS, the reporting system records less than 1% of all adverse events from vaccines in the United States. That’s because data acquisition is passive and relies on healthcare providers to submit information. Also, many ordinary citizens are unfamiliar with how to use the program.
Of the 111 adverse reactions in Alaska, 59 included anaphylactic reaction and 45 required emergency doctor/room visits.
The five deaths reported in Alaska occurred after patients received the Pfizer vaccine. This included four men and one woman between the ages of 73 and 100. The deceased all had pre-existing medical conditions before getting the shot. In at least three instances the physician who entered the data did not believe the death was directly tied to the vaccine. Two other reports, however, did not rule out the vaccine as a possible cause of death.
Nationwide, VAERS lists 329 deaths in the wake of COVID vaccines. About 65% of these individuals were between 65 and 75 years old. Another 9,845 instances of adverse reactions are listed from all across the country.
Of the 111 adverse reactions in Alaska, 59 included anaphylactic reaction and 45 required emergency doctor/room visits. In most cases patients suffering adverse reactions experienced some combination of chest tightness, difficulty breathing, wheezing, coughing, swelling of lips, mouth and tongue, heart palpitations, severe dizziness, rashes and pain at the injection site.
A 29-year-old woman from Alaska endured severe high blood pressure and nausea, along with rash and hives on her arm and face after taking the Pfizer vaccine in December. Her reaction included head and body aches, chills and high fever. This happened within 20-30 minutes of taking the vaccine. She was admitted to the emergency room twice over two days with unresolved complications.
In another report a woman said she was breastfeeding her five-month-old son just four hours after receiving the vaccine. Two days later, while in daycare, the boy fell limp and was in and out of consciousness. He also suffered a body rash and was taken to the emergency department where he recovered that day and was released.
ALASKA WATCHMAN DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX
These are just two of many pages documenting adverse reactions among Alaskans.
Even though daily COVID case counts are in steady decline and hospital capacity and medical supplies are not overburdened, the State of Alaska continues to encourage all residents who can to get vaccinated. As of Feb. 2, nearly 97,000 Alaskans have received at least part one of the COVID vaccine.
Alaska has reported 1,209 hospitalizations and 277 deaths ascribed to COVID. As of Feb. 2, there are only 42 patients hospitalized who have COVID, although the reason for their hospitalization may have nothing to do with the virus.
According to the state’s COVID website, all vaccinated residents should continue to wear masks, social distance, avoid gatherings and quarantine after contacting someone with COVID. It suggests that vaccinated individuals can still contract COVID and pass it along to others.
“Research is ongoing to look into the question of how likely it is that someone who has been vaccinated can get COVID-19 but have no symptoms at all and still pass it to someone else, and our recommendations may change as we learn more over the coming weeks and months,” the website states.
On Dec. 10, the FDA released its analysis of the Pfizer vaccine, including known risks. Of the 44,000 people who participated in the clinical trials, this is the percentage who had adverse reactions: injection site reactions (84.1%), fatigue (62.9%), headache (55.1%), muscle pain (38.3%), chills (31.9%), joint pain (23.6%), fever (14.2%). Severe reactions occurred in up to 4.6% of subjects.
The FDA analysis noted that there is “insufficient data to make conclusions about the safety of the vaccine in subpopulations such as children less than 16 years of age, pregnant and lactating individuals, and immunocompromised individuals.”
The Pfizer vaccine is an experimental mRNA vaccine, which has never before been approved for widespread use in humans.
TAKING ACTION
- Click here to learn how to report an adverse reaction to the COVID vaccine to the CDC.
32 Comments
Got the first shot on the 28th of January. So far no adverse reactions.
Its a double standard and boarders on criminal in my opinion that the State tries to make every death a covid death and even has its own web page to broadcast it abroad and yet when it comes to the experimental vaccine they refuse to track or report injury and death. This just seems biased to me.
This article if you can even call it that is biased. To say people who received the vaccine and aged 73-100 died for the vaccine is just dumb. I appreciate the linked death data. The severe reactions account for .001144% based on his data in this article. Seems pretty good odds to me. I’m happy to head in for dose #2 tomorrow.
Actually severe reactions account for 0.1144% based upon data in the article. 0.001144 is the fraction of people who, according to the article, had adverse reactions. The article also states that less than 1% of all adverse events from vaccine are reported. If the adverse events for the COVID-19 vaccine follows the reporting trend for vaccines in general, then the real number of adverse reactions for the 97,000 vaccinated Alaskans could be as high as 11,096 (11.44%). Although I’d wager health professionals are reporting adverse events for the COVID-19 vaccine better than previous vaccines so I’d assume that the adverse reaction rate of 4.6% from the trials would be probably closer to accurate for the general population.
Just as dumb as claiming COVID deaths for 73 to 100 year olds?
Every medication on the market has side effects. They are often greedy aided by the severity of those side effects. And this vaccine seems to be similar in nature in regards to the number of side effects to most medications. This is my first time on this site and after looking at more of the “articles” it seems like it’s the opinion of one writer and not really based on sound data that is cross referenced.
I don’t think anyone is claiming that most (or any) medication on the market does not have any side affects. Knowing the side affects of a particular medication allows individuals to make informed decisions about their healthcare. Do you have examples of “articles” in which the writer uses data which is not cross referenced. This particular one is probably a bad example of offering opinions instead of sound data since in it cross references to source material eight times for the numbers and I don’t see any overt opinions in it.
Paul, I’m not sure why you’re calling this article an “opinion” piece, as it is basically a list of statistics drawn from official sources. The author is providing data that is not being reported by most media outlets, and which is difficult for most readers to access on their own. If you’re not comfortable or happy with the conclusions you read into it from reading the statistics, that’s not the author’s fault.
Vaccine of the Beast!
Well it appears all the vaccine trolls have spoken, exception to Mongo. An experimental vaccine, which has not completed stage III trials, has been given the green light by the FDA due to a declared emergency status. This emergency is based on the PCR test which has been proven to result in at least 81% false positives, when replications are about 35. Next question how many of the deaths in Alaska or the nation in fact were actually COVID 19 deaths, at last count 94% of those deaths were listed as with not from COVID19. Kind of like the flu every year. Speaking of the flu, those vaccinations must be working really well this year as flu cases have been drastically lower.
It would be interesting to compare this to the number of adverse reactions and death due to the Flu vaccine, which is administered routinely to seniors and nursing home residents annually. People 73-100 years of age often are nearing the end of their natural lives. Whether they succumb to the COVID19 virus infection, a possible adverse reaction to the vaccine, or other natural causes, it is still a loss. The current known risks of the vaccine are eminently less than the known risks and severity of the actual infection. Prevention of disease remains a worthy goal and should be considered
WOW! Thank you, Joel, for your excellent reportage. This helps me make a decision on whether or not to take the vaccine at this time. It reinforces my decision not to do so, until other vaccines come out (that are both ethical and don’t have such extreme side effects).
How very interesting that just today ( when your article was published) I happened to receive a call back from the State Of Alaska COVID Hotline. They were 3 weeks late in responding to my Jan 11 call to them and I couldn’t remember exactly why I called them. However, since a friend and I are at odds regarding vaccinations in general and especially now the COVID vaccine (which I have recieved the first of the Moderna series on 20 January) I decided to ask my caller “ How many people in Alaska have died from recieving the COVID vaccine ? “ her reply “ none”. I then asked her “ how many people in Alaska have had a reaction to the COVID vaccination ?” Her reply “ only one, but some people have had a sore shoulder or fatigue for a day or so after recieving it” I then said “ that’s what I thought ( primarily based on my uneventful reaction to the first injection) but also due to my continual reading of the issue. Followed by “ but my friend has sent me a a news article reporting “ hundreds of deaths” . Whereupon she replied “ Yes, there’s a lot of false information out there”. WHOM TO BELIEVE ? Healthline has excellent coverage of the issue on today’s blog.
We would like to know some comparisons, such as 111 out of how many given the vaccine. We would like to calculate the percentages.
I would like to know why only the Pfizer percentages were given and no Moderna. If we are being fair, shouldn’t both have been listed?
Anyone who dies after receiving a COVID vaccine should be counted as a COVID-vaccine death. Additionally, any hospital admissions from anyone who’s received the vaccine should be counted as a Covid-vaccine hospitalization.
so if i get the vaccine and then slip and fall on ice and break my foot, it should be labelled as a covid-vaccine hospitalization? Do you see how ridiculous you sound?
I believe that was her point. She is describing the exact methodology used to record “COVID hospitalizations” an “COVID deaths.”
Just as dumb as claiming COVID deaths for 73 to 100 year olds?
This article does not state that COVID shots killed 5 people. The ADN reporter (and many others apparently) struggle with reading comprehension. This is a straw man. Mischaracterize something, and then attack it for your own mischaracterization. For the last 9 months any death of a person who had COVID in their bloodstream was labeled a COVID death, REGARDLESS of cause. Question the rationale, and you’re questioning science while wearing a tinfoil hat. The chronology of this data is from straight from the federal government. We even report IN the article that 3 of the deaths were described by the reporting physician as COVID not being the cause – but the deaths were reported on the VAERS website because of their proximity to the time of vaccination.
You conveniently omit that the story also stated “two other reports, however, did not rule out the vaccine as a possible cause of death.” Had you been real journalists, you would have contacted a medical professional to clarify this — as the ADN did. But you didn’t bother, because the tone and word choice throughout was clearly designed to implant the idea within your readers’ heads that vaccines are inherently unsafe and may have contributed to these deaths. If you dispute this, I’d encourage you to read the long list of comments on this very story — many of which praise the reporting and state how this story has dissuaded people from taking the vaccine.
Honest journalists seek out context to help paint a complete picture; that’s the opposite of what your publication does on a regular basis. With forked tongues, you intentionally steer your readers toward dangerous and often false conclusions through misleading, manipulative and dishonest reporting. You’re a pair of unfunny and irresponsible imps whose deceit is doing immeasurable harm to this community. You may be able to sleep at night after consistently endangering public health through your irresponsible reporting, but I’m not sure how. I’m praying for you.
Nothing was conveniently omitted, you actually make my point perfectly about the straw man argument. You suppose Joel’s intentions in writing the article and mine in defending its accuracy, and then quote scripture to attack them as though your suppositions are the facts. That mixed in with ad hominem attacks and name calling. The facts are that COVID is not worthy of the crushing mandates and closures the public has endured, and this article simply exposed the double standard. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. I’m sure they are as genuine and real as those of Nancy Pelosi for President Trump.
dang you got slammed Jake Libbey.
Read above comment a few more times…
Real journalism is approaching the issue without bias, something you and the author clearly cannot do, or even fathom why that is a good, “moral” thing to do.
It’s sad.
BURN! I’ll try and contain my grief at being called names by anonymous trolls. The Alaska Watchman exists because the mainstream has been reporting only one side, or not at all, on most social issues for decades. What is sad is how so many have drunk the koolaid that CNN, and their sycophants at the ADN are unbiased news sources. I agree, it’s sad.
No one has died from the vaccine… Not only in Alaska but in the entire country. You are making fake news to create traffic or sell the story to anti-vaxxers. It is irresponsible and dangerous.
They are investigating the first possible adverse event that resulted in a death today in Virginia – that’s it. No deaths have occurred in Alaska. The PCR COVID test is 99% accurate and “false positives” come from antigen tests that need to be verified later with a PCR. Negative antigen tests, however, are very reliable on their own. Moderna and Pfizer did go through stage three trials as they should. I am seeing a whole lot of “Q” and not a lot of facts in many of these comments. The sad thing is that commenters on this board should be celebrating the high quality and successful development of these vaccines at “warp speed” as a victory for why we embrace capitalism vs. the ineffective vaccine that was developed in China. Keep the Advil handy but get your shot.
Thank you for a well-researched article. This needs to be reported on.
As a young person, I am disappointed with the inaccuracies in this article- and even more disappointed by the misinformation and danger it spreads. Reactions on the website where they were reported can be put there by ANYONE. This means there could be repeat listings for the same patient, and that ANYONE can list ANY reactions they may have- even a sore arm, which is to be expected after any vaccine! The deaths of the elderly folks who have gotten the vaccine are tragic but are not necessarily a result of the vaccine. This misinformation is going to prevent people who may just blindly believe it from getting vaccines that will not only help them but help the community as a whole. I wish that this information could have been better researched, and presented in a more unbiased way.
No one has died from the experimental vaccine? If you tell the lie enough times will it come true?
Ask the wife of Dr. Gregory Michael, an obstetrician in private practice at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami. Why he died a horrible death after getting the vaccine.
Dr. Gregory Michael, an obstetrician in private practice at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, received a first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech experimental mRNA COVID-19 vaccine on December 18, 2020 and died 16 days later of a cerebral hemorrhage (stroke).1
Within three days of taking the shot, he developed symptoms of a severe autoimmune bleeding disorder, idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), often referred to as immune thrombocytopenia.2 According to his wife, the 56-year old OB/GYN physician was healthy when he received the COVID-19 vaccine and began exhibiting symptoms of bleeding under the skin within 72 hours.
Excellent research, lets see what 2022 brings us
Such a well written blog. I’m hopeful they’ll cure Covid permanently in the near future.fingers crossed.
I agree
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