“A cohort study was conducted during December 2020–July 2021 among approximately 11 million persons enrolled in seven Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD) sites,” the report said, referring to a joint project by the CDC and nine healthcare organizations that gather electronic data on vaccines for clinical studies. “After standardizing mortality rates by age and sex, this study found that COVID-19 vaccine recipients had lower non-COVID-19 mortality than did unvaccinated persons.”
The study, led by Stanley Xu from Kaiser Permanente Southern California, took into account people who received the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines, finding that those who received multiple doses of any vaccine had lower mortality rates than those who received only one dose.
Moreover, those who received mRNA vaccines such as the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna shots had lower mortality rates than people who were vaccinated with the Johnson & Johnson shot, a viral vector vaccine.
An illustration, created at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), depicts the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (credit: MAM/CDC/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS)
In addition to the fact that people who are vaccinated against COVID-19 are less likely to die of non-COVID-related causes, the study confirmed that the vaccines are safe to administer and effective against the disease.
“COVID-19 vaccines authorized in the United States have [been] shown again and again to be safe,” Xu said, according to CNN. “This study also confirms their safety.”