Certified vaccine deaths (ICD-10: Y59.0) following COVID-19 vaccine administration in the USA

Update 2026-10-29: This report is now available on Zenodo

CORRELATION has published a new Brief Report entitled “Certified vaccine deaths (ICD-10: Y59.0) following COVID-19 vaccine administration in the USA”, authored by Denis G. Rancourt, Marine Baudin, and Joseph Hickey.

The Abstract of the report reads as follows:

In the USA, viral vaccine deaths identified by attendant physicians are certified on legally required death certificates and codified using ICD-10 code Y59.0 in the national mortality-by-cause database maintained by the CDC (CDC Wonder). These certified vaccine deaths by year are essentially zero in the period 1999 through 2020 (despite large influenza vaccination programs) and show a significant increase in 2021 when COVID-19 vaccines were administered. Similarly, certified vaccine deaths by year from all vaccine types (including bacterial) under previous and current coding systems (ICD-8, ICD-9, ICD-10) are near-zero (≤ 10 per year) in the period 1968 through 2020. The significant increase in certified vaccine deaths starting in 2021 is unprecedented since at least 1968 and constitutes a robust safety signal for COVID-19 vaccines, establishing a lower-bound and definitive risk of death.

Download a copy of the report below: