Which childhood vaccines have had deaths reported to VAERS in the US since 2020 and what follow-up investigations found
Executive summary
VAERS contains death reports following many vaccines since 2020, but public reporting does not equal confirmed causation; federal agencies use VAERS as an early‑warning system and follow up with additional investigations and studies that most often do not find vaccines caused the deaths (see official VAERS guidance) [1] [2]. Recent high‑profile internal FDA review emails claim at least 10 child deaths were related to COVID‑19 vaccination based on an internal VAERS review — a claim that several news outlets report but that experts say lacks publicly released case details and peer‑reviewed analysis [3] [4] [5].
1. What VAERS actually shows and what it doesn’t: raw reports, not verdicts
VAERS is a passive surveillance database that accepts reports from anyone and is designed to flag potential safety signals, not to establish causality; the CDC and FDA explicitly warn VAERS reports “cannot be used to determine if a vaccine caused or contributed to an adverse event” and follow up with more rigorous surveillance systems and studies [2] [1]. Multiple fact‑checks and science outlets explained that large counts of deaths “reported after vaccination” are not evidence vaccines caused those deaths and stressed the need for additional investigation [6] [7].
2. Which childhood vaccines have death reports in VAERS since 2020 — the record and its limits
Available public reporting shows deaths after many vaccine types were entered into VAERS during and after 2020, including reports tied to COVID‑19 vaccines for children and to routine childhood vaccines; VAERS data pages and CDC materials make the datasets available and note reporting numbers change over time [1] [8]. However, the sources provided do not contain a compiled, authoritative list of every childhood vaccine with a VAERS death report since 2020, and they repeatedly caution that appearance in VAERS is not proof of cause [1] [2]. Therefore: available sources do not list a definitive per‑vaccine roster of childhood vaccines with deaths reported since 2020 [2] [1].
3. High‑profile example — COVID‑19 vaccines and pediatric deaths
An internal FDA memo reported an internal review of 96 child deaths in VAERS and concluded at least 10 were “related” to COVID‑19 vaccination, with myocarditis cited in news coverage; Reuters, NBC, STAT, NPR and CBS described the memo and noted the agency did not publish the underlying case details or peer‑reviewed analysis [3] [4] [5] [9] [10]. Those reports also emphasize experts’ skepticism because the memo did not include ages, medical histories, timelines or the data used to reach attribution, and because VAERS is unverified by itself [4] [5] [10].
4. How federal follow‑up typically proceeds after VAERS death reports
When a death is reported to VAERS, CDC and FDA use other systems (Vaccine Safety Datalink, Clinical Immunization Safety Assessment, electronic health records, medical‑examiner and autopsy data) to test whether a statistical or clinical association exists; published studies on VAERS death reporting around COVID‑19 emphasize that reported death rates were lower than expected background all‑cause death rates and that reported diagnoses often reflected known leading causes of death — not proven vaccine causes [2] [11] [12] [13]. Reporting studies conclude VAERS signals require further, controlled investigation to move from “reported after” to “caused by” [11] [12].
5. Competing interpretations and sources of doubt
Advocacy and alternative media outlets have used VAERS counts to assert vaccines caused many deaths, sometimes extrapolating underreporting rates without clinical verification; journalists and public‑health experts counter that such extrapolations misuse VAERS and ignore background mortality and other surveillance that found little evidence of vaccine‑caused deaths at population level [14] [15] [7] [6]. The FDA internal memo and ensuing coverage show institutional disagreement about interpretation and the need for transparent, case‑level data to allow independent expert review [4] [5] [10].
6. What’s missing and what to watch next
Sources show a clear need for released case‑level evidence and peer‑reviewed analyses when agencies assert vaccine causation; the FDA memo described internal findings but the underlying data were not published, prompting calls from experts for third‑party review [4] [5]. Readers should watch for formal CDC/FDA publications, CISA/ACIP review sessions and peer‑reviewed studies using linked medical records or autopsy data that either corroborate or refute internal attributions [11] [9].
Limitations: this analysis uses only the provided sources and therefore cannot supply a complete per‑vaccine list of childhood vaccines with VAERS death reports since 2020; available sources do not present consolidated case‑level outcomes for routine childhood vaccines [1] [2].