If you dig deeper enough, you will discover that quite a number of persons are still battling long-Covid (Frequent return of Symptoms) whether they were vaccinated or not.
More recently, controversy stirred again over COVID-19 vaccines after Tech Billionaire, Elon Musk shared his personal experience with the virus and vaccination.
In a recent post on X, Musk said he experienced only mild symptoms after contracting the original strain of COVID-19 before vaccines were available. However, he claimed his second vaccine dose caused severe side effects, stating it “almost sent me to the hospital.”
“The vaccine dosage was obviously too high and done too many times. I had the original Wuhan virus before there was any vaccine and it was much like any other cold/flu. Bad, but not terrible. But my second vaccine shot almost sent me to the hospital. Felt like I was dying.”
While Musk’s comments quickly gained traction online, they come on the heels of a broader and more complex debate triggered by testimony in Germany that has also drawn scrutiny from health authorities and scientists.
Recall that at a parliamentary inquiry in Germany, Dr Helmut Sterz alleged that COVID-19 vaccines may have contributed to tens of thousands of deaths. Speaking before the Bundestag’s Corona Enquete Commission, he questioned the speed of vaccine development and claimed that key preclinical safety studies were not fully completed prior to rollout.
Sterz further cited data from Germany’s Paul-Ehrlich-Institut, which recorded 2,133 deaths following vaccination. However, he applied a controversial 30-fold multiplier, based on underreporting assumptions from a U.S. study, to suggest the actual number could be as high as nearly 64,000.
That claim has been firmly rejected by German authorities, including Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, who described the figures as misleading and not grounded in scientific evidence.
Experts say the methodology behind the claim is fundamentally flawed. The multiplier cited by Sterz originates from a U.S.-based study of the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), a passive reporting database where unverified incidents are logged. Health authorities, including the U.S. Department of Health, have repeatedly warned that such data cannot be used to determine causation or estimate actual death rates.
Crucially, specialists stress that applying U.S. reporting assumptions to Germany’s healthcare system is scientifically invalid, given differences in surveillance systems, reporting standards and medical oversight.
Further undermining the claim, peer-reviewed research published in The Lancet indicates that higher vaccination rates were strongly associated with lower mortality across Western Europe, reinforcing the widely accepted view that vaccines significantly reduced severe illness and deaths during the pandemic.
Despite the scientific consensus, skepticism around COVID-19 vaccines persists in some quarters, often fuelled by anecdotal experiences and misinterpreted data. Global health authorities, including the World Health Organization, continue to emphasise that vaccines remain one of the most effective tools in preventing severe disease and saving lives.
