BY JOHN HOUANIHAU
The World Health Organization (WHO) has amplified Health Minister, Dr Paul Popora Bosawai’s statement of zero fatalities related to covid vaccines in Solomon Islands.
This status is consistent with global safety monitoring, which shows that serious vaccine-related adverse events are extremely rare, in sharp contrast to the millions of lives lost to COVID-19 itself, WHO said in a statement yesterday.
Minister Bosawai had told parliament on Tuesday this week that the country has no record of any death resulting from side-effects to the covid-19 vaccines.
WHO’s statement referenced Island Sun’s frontpage yesterday titled ‘ZERO COVID VAX DEATHS’ which reported Bosawai’s statements in parliament.
Bosawai was responding to question ‘Can the Minister update the house on any recorded case of unexpected deaths linked to covid-19 vaccinations’, put forth by the Member of Parliament for West Kwara’ae, Alfred Tuasulia.
“This local finding is consistent with global safety monitoring, which shows that serious vaccine-related adverse events are extremely rare, in sharp contrast to the millions of lives lost to COVID-19 itself.
“While more than seven million deaths from COVID-19 have been officially reported worldwide, the true global death toll is likely around 14 to 18 million after accounting for underreporting of deaths since the pandemic began.
“COVID-19 vaccination fundamentally changed this trajectory. Global modelling published in Lancet Infectious Diseases suggests vaccinations prevented an estimated 14 to 20 million additional deaths in 2021 alone, the deadliest year of the pandemic, meaning the global death toll would have been two to three times higher without vaccines,” WHO said.
The health organization said that despite tremendous press to the contrary, an analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published in MMWR estimated that COVID-19 vaccines prevented 3.2 million deaths and 18.5 million hospitalisations in the United States by the end of 2022.
This significantly reduced pressure on hospitals and intensive care units during the height of the pandemic.
WHO adds that further evidence of continuing protection comes from a large study published in 2025 in the New England Journal of Medicine, which followed nearly 300,000 U.S. veterans receiving care through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Between September 2024 and March 2025, people who received the updated 2024–2025 COVID-19 vaccine had a 64% lower risk of death, a 58% lower risk of hospitalization, and a 62% lower risk of ICU admission compared to unvaccinated individuals.
The protection was said to be strongest among older adults and those with chronic illnesses, showing that vaccination continues to save lives even as COVID-19 becomes endemic.
“Of critical importance, the benefits of vaccination in preventing severe illness and death remain far greater than the risks, particularly for older adults and people with underlying health conditions. This fact is confirmed by WHO, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the European Medicines Agency, which affirm that serious adverse events causally linked to vaccination are extremely rare.
“Solomon Islands has recorded zero COVID-19 vaccine-related deaths — and globally, vaccination has saved millions of lives,” said Dr Howard Sobel, WHO representative in Solomon Islands.
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