No, CDC COVID-19 vaccine data doesn't link shot to shorter life span | Fact check

Chris Mueller, USA TODAY
·3 min read
250

The claim: CDC data shows COVID-19 vaccines could lower life expectancy by up to 24 years

A Sept. 4 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) shows a screenshot of a post on X, formerly Twitter, that claims a particular vaccine has been linked to shorter lifespans.

"BREAKING: According to new CDC data, the Covid vaccine could take 24 years off of your life," reads the post.

The post was liked more than 1,000 times in two weeks. The X post appears to have been deleted.

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Our rating: False

There is no evidence any data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows a link between COVID-19 vaccines and lower life expectancy. The dataset cited in a related article wasn't released until months after the claim was made. The claim originated with a website that frequently publishes misinformation.

Claim started on site that often shares vaccine misinformation

The claim appears to stem from a Feb. 8 article posted on a website called "The Expose," which has previously published vaccine-related misinformation.

The article cites a study that looked at the effectiveness of a bivalent COVID-19 vaccine among Cleveland Clinic employees. The study found the vaccine "afforded modest protection overall" when given to working-age adults. It did not address life expectancy.

The article also claims the CDC's all-cause mortality data shows "each vaccine dose" increased mortality by 7% from 2021 to 2022. However, provisional mortality data for 2022 from the CDC wasn't released until May 5, nearly three months after the article was published. It says the "overall age-adjusted U.S. death rate decreased by 5.3% from 2021 to 2022."

The same provisional data indicates COVID-19 was the country's fourth-leading cause of death in 2022. COVID-19 was the third-leading cause of death in 2021, behind heart disease and cancer.

USA TODAY has previously debunked baseless claims from The Expose, including that the COVID-19 vaccines were responsible for 1.1 million excess deaths, that the CDC reported a jump in "AIDS-associated diseases and cancers" after the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines and that monkeypox is a side effect of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Fact check: Severe COVID-19 is associated with accelerated aging

The CDC's website describes the COVID-19 vaccines as "safe and effective," and it notes they've been evaluated in tens of thousands of clinical trial participants. There is no mention of the vaccines leading to a shortened life expectancy.

The CDC did not respond to a request for comment.

COVID-19 has contributed to a recent decline in life expectancy, which fell 1.8 years in 2020 and 0.6 years in 2021 to reach 76.4 years, as USA TODAY previously reported.

USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

AFP also debunked the claim.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: No evidence COVID-19 vaccines shorten life expectancy | Fact check