evidence: On 17 January 2023, the website The Exposé published an article, proclaiming in the headline that "Secret CDC Report confirms nearly 120k Youngsters ‘Died Suddenly’ in the USA by Oct. 2022 following roll-out of COVID Vaccines". Citing excess death statistics in the U.S. and non-COVID death statistics in the U.K., the article alleged that these were due to COVID-19 vaccination. No author was listed in the article’s byline, as is typically the case for articles by the Exposé, but an investigation by the organization Logically found that the website was owned by an individual named Jonathan Allen-Walker. [...] None of those datasets were included by The Exposé, which then ascribed excess deaths in the U.S. to COVID-19 vaccination by citing data from the U.K. Office of National Statistics (ONS) instead, specifically the report titled "Deaths by Vaccination Status, England, 1 January 2021 to 31 May 2022". Showing a graph of non-COVID deaths in people aged 18 to 39 in England for January to May 2022, the article highlighted the spikes in deaths in those who received one dose of vaccine compared to unvaccinated people. [...] Overall, these observations are inconsistent with the claim that COVID-19 vaccines are responsible for excess deaths in the young. Instead, the evidence points to COVID-19 as the main cause of excess deaths in the U.S. Rather than contributing to excess deaths, COVID-19 vaccines can instead help to minimize such deaths, given that they are highly effective at reducing a person’s risk of severe disease.