Lockdowns, contact bans, vaccinations: Coming to terms with the Corona period and its measures is far from complete. A current huge study on mRNA vaccines is now making an important contribution to this debate.
Epidemiologist Timo Ulrichs has a clear answer: “The vaccination is safe,” he explains in an interview with FOCUS online. “It protects against serious illness and death from Covid-19.” This assessment is no coincidence. This once again confirms one of the largest long-term studies that has currently looked at the effects of mRNA vaccination.
And that’s not all: As the study with more than 28 million test subjects showed, a corona vaccination with the mRNA vaccines Comirnaty and Spikevax also statistically reduces the risk of dying from other diseases.
What one of the largest long-term studies on mRNA vaccinations shows
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This was the conclusion reached by a research team led by scientist Laura Semenzato from the French Drug Safety Authority. The study was published in the specialist magazine “Jama Network Open”. It had analyzed data on 22.7 million vaccinated and 5.9 million unvaccinated people aged 18 to 59 from the French national health data system. The researchers made the two groups statistically comparable.
The goal was to compare the overall mortality of those vaccinated with those who were unvaccinated over a period of almost four years (November 2021 to September 2025). During this time, around 98,400 people died in the sample of vaccinated people and around 32,700 in the sample of unvaccinated people – in terms of proportions, this was 0.4 percent compared to 0.6 percent.
“Those who were vaccinated had a lower risk of death than those who were not vaccinated.”
Through statistical analyzes and estimates, the researchers found:
- The vaccinated participants had a 74 percent lower risk of dying from severe Covid-19.
- While from the unvaccinated people 85 per million The only people who died from Covid-19 were those who were vaccinated 18 per million.
- In addition – and this speaks for the safety of the vaccination – the risk of overall mortality for those vaccinated did not increase. On the contrary. Semenzato and her team found that they had a 25 percent lower risk of all-cause mortality.
What does that mean?
“Vaccinated people had a lower risk of death compared to unvaccinated people, regardless of the cause of death,” the researchers explain in the study.
Accordingly, according to statistical analyses, the vaccination also protected against diseases other than Corona. The leading cause of death in the study was cancer.
While among the vaccinated study participants 769 per million The people who died from it were those who were unvaccinated 853 per million People.
Cardiovascular diseases:
- Deaths among those vaccinated: 282 per million people
- Deaths among the unvaccinated: 367 per million people
Diseases of the digestive system:
- Deaths among those vaccinated: 139 per million people
- Deaths among the unvaccinated: 172 per million people
Respiratory system diseases:
- Deaths among those vaccinated: 282 per million people
- Deaths among the unvaccinated: 367 per million people
Researchers show: mRNA vaccines are safe
Although the vaccinated people in the study were generally older and tended to have more comorbidities – factors that would typically lead to higher mortality in the vaccinated group – they did not have a higher mortality rate, the researchers write. This could be because the vaccinated people had “socioeconomic advantages” and probably benefited from better health management.
In summary, the study proves that the vaccination is effective in the long term – and reduces the risk of dying from Covid-19 or becoming seriously ill with it, the research team concludes. That was the main goal of the vaccination – not to prevent infections. “These findings show that the BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273 (Comirnaty and Spikevax) vaccines are safe.”
“The use of mRNA vaccines during the pandemic was the right thing to do”
This is also confirmed by epidemiologist Ulrichs, who was not involved in the study. The study found that no increased mortality could be demonstrated as a result of the vaccination.
“The large numbers enable very reliable statements and prove in retrospect that the use of mRNA-based vaccination during the pandemic was correct and sensible.”
According to the current vaccination recommendations, it is still advisable, namely during the autumn and winter seasons and at least to protect risk groups, namely those over 60 and people with chronic underlying diseases.
