Fact Check: UK stillbirth study falsely linked to COVID vaccination
A report on a rise of stillbirths and babies dying in early weeks of life did not examine any data on the mothers’ COVID-19 vaccination status, despite social media posts misleadingly linking the results to vaccination efforts.
The annual report by researchers at Oxford and Leicester universities found perinatal mortality and stillbirth rates increased slightly across the UK in 2021 after years of decline. It reported 3.54 stillbirths per 1,000 births in 2021, up from 3.33 per 1,000 in 2020, and the rate of neonatal deaths, when a baby dies within 28 days of birth, rose to 1.65 per 1,000 in 2021 from 1.53 in 2020. Users of messaging platform X, formerly known as Twitter, and Facebook shared a Daily Mail headline about the report alongside comments suggesting a link between the mortalities and COVID vaccination.