Controversial study on excess deaths during COVID-19 pandemic retracted

A controversial study analyzing excess deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was widely criticised for lending credence to vaccine scepticism, has been retracted, the British journal's publisher announced.

The study, published in the journal BMJ Public Health in 2024, was retracted "on the grounds of misinformation on causes of death and limited original work conducted by the authors," the BMJ Group said in a statement.

The study suggested that the number of excess deaths in the West remained abnormally high even after the peak of the COVID-19 crisis had passed.

It was cited in many anti-vaccine articles and social media posts that falsely claimed the paper directly linked these excess deaths to COVID-19 vaccinations.

The study did not make this explicit link. 

However, it did conclude that "excess mortality has remained high in the Western World for three consecutive years, despite the implementation of containment measures and COVID-19 vaccines."

This ambiguity provoked widespread criticism of the paper, with some researchers accusing the authors of providing ammunition for unfounded attacks against COVID-19 vaccines, which have been demonstrated to have saved millions of lives since 2020.

The methodology used to calculate excess deaths in the study has also been called into question.

The BMJ Group, which also publishes the prestigious British Medical Journal, had previously announced it was investigating the study.

The Netherlands-based Princess Maxima Center for Pediatric Oncology, where three of the study's four authors were affiliated, also launched its own probe.

An expression of concern had already been issued about the paper in 2024. But after its investigation, the BMJ Group decided to fully retract the study—the most severe measure of scientific disavowal for scientific papers.

"The institution and two of the four authors of the research support the decision to retract the work," the publisher said.