What are the latest global and country-specific statistics on deaths following COVID-19 vaccination (2025)?
Executive summary
An internal FDA review concluded an initial analysis of 96 pediatric deaths reported to VAERS from 2021–2024 and judged that “no fewer than 10” children died “after and because of” COVID-19 vaccination, with myocarditis implicated in the memo (reported across Reuters, NYT, CNN, STAT and others) [1][2][3][4]. Mainstream public‑health outlets and experts say the FDA memo’s claim has not been published with underlying data and many experts are skeptical and request transparent case data and peer review before accepting the conclusion [2][4][5].
1. The claim: an internal FDA memo and the 10 child deaths
A memo from Dr. Vinay Prasad, director of CBER at the FDA, circulated inside the agency asserting that career staff’s initial review of 96 VAERS‑reported deaths found at least 10 that were likely, probable or possibly attributable to COVID‑19 vaccination; the memo links those deaths to heart inflammation — myocarditis — and calls for stricter vaccine approval standards [2][1][3][6].
2. How major outlets reported it — consistent core, different emphasis
News outlets widely reported the memo’s central figure (10 deaths from 96 reports) and the FDA official’s proposed regulatory changes; Reuters and The New York Times emphasized the agency finding and the lack of public data, CNN quoted Prasad’s strong language about coercion and risk, and Axios and NPR summarized regulatory consequences while noting prior signals about myocarditis [1][2][3][6][5].
3. Why experts and public‑health authorities are cautious
Multiple public‑health experts told reporting outlets they are skeptical because the memo has not released case‑level data, has not been peer‑reviewed, and because prior assessments (CDC and others) found myocarditis a rare vaccine adverse event but judged benefits to outweigh risks for most groups; reporters note experts want to examine the evidence and methods underpinning the FDA staff review before accepting the agency director’s conclusion [2][4][5][6].
4. What the sources say (and do not say) about global or country totals
The items in the supplied search set focus narrowly on the FDA internal review and US regulatory implications; they do not provide comprehensive global or country‑by‑country counts of deaths following COVID vaccination in 2025, nor do they present a peer‑reviewed, population‑level estimate of vaccine‑attributable deaths worldwide. Available sources do not mention global or systematic country‑specific totals for 2025 beyond the FDA internal US review [1][2][4].
5. Surveillance systems and known context from earlier years
Historic vaccine safety monitoring relied on passive systems like VAERS and active surveillance; earlier published studies examined deaths reported after vaccination in limited windows (for example, early VAERS analyses in 2020–2021) but those studies are methodologically limited for causal attribution without medical‑record review and controlled epidemiologic study [7]. The broader literature and reviews through 2024–2025 continued to find vaccines reduced COVID deaths and serious outcomes in many populations, with estimates of lives saved ranging widely across studies [8][9].
6. Conflicting incentives and implicit agendas in coverage
Coverage and commentary vary by outlet: some conservative or skeptical outlets amplify the FDA memo as proof of vaccine harms and push regulatory rollback narratives [10][11][12], while public‑health and mainstream scientific outlets emphasize the need for transparent data and independent review before changing clinical or policy conclusions [2][4][5]. Readers should note those differing editorial and political contexts when weighing headlines.
7. What would settle the question for scientists and policy makers
Experts repeatedly told reporters that peer‑reviewed publication of the case series, with ages, comorbidities, timing, autopsy or clinical findings, classification criteria, and denominator vaccination data, plus independent epidemiologic analyses comparing observed vs expected deaths by age and time since vaccination, are needed to assess causality and scale; those documents have not been published in the material provided [2][4][5].
8. Bottom line for readers seeking numbers in 2025
The most concrete statistic in current reporting is the FDA internal finding that at least 10 pediatric deaths were judged linked to COVID vaccines after review of 96 VAERS‑reported deaths — but the underlying data and broader country‑level or global counts for 2025 are not included in the available reporting. For reliable global or country‑specific mortality figures tied to vaccination in 2025, available sources do not mention a completed, transparent, peer‑reviewed dataset or international surveillance summary to cite [1][2][4].
Limitations: this analysis uses only the supplied reporting; it does not include later data releases, internal FDA documents beyond the memo summaries, or peer‑reviewed studies that may emerge after these articles.