Have COVID vaccines killed more than three wars?

A social media post claims that COVID vaccines have killed 600,005 people, more than the 580,124 Americans killed during World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam War.

The meme starts with the number 19,355, the number of deaths reported to VAERS. One problem with using VAERS data is that VAERS is a repository of anything bad that happens after a vaccine, regardless of whether it was caused by a vaccine or not. Anyone can file a VAERS report, and doctors must report any death that happens soon after vaccination even if the person died in a car crash or from cancer. In this report there were clear examples of the vaccine being excluded as cause of death, yet the reports are still listed in VAERS and counted as vaccine deaths by those who make these memes.

Next, the creator multiplies 19,355 by 31. They claim only one in thirty‑one vaccine adverse events gets reported because of the analysis from a wordpress blog disguised as a medical journal, with an editorial board that includes anti-science and anti-vaccine figures such as Peter McCullough, Pierre Kory, Russell Blaylock, and Brian Hooker.

What is the likely number of deaths actually caused by the COVID‑19 vaccines? Careful reviews by CDC experts have found nine deaths in the United States linked to a rare blood-clotting condition after the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. No other deaths have been confirmed as caused by any COVID‑19 shot, out of hundreds of millions of doses given. That works out to far less than one death per million doses—many times lower than the risk of dying from COVID itself. (archive.cdc.gov)