France, Aug. 14 -- The study, published in the British journal BMJ Public Health in 2024, was withdrawn "on the grounds of misinformation on causes of death and limited original work conducted by the authors", the BMJ Group said this week.

The paper suggested that excess mortality - the number of deaths above what would normally be expected - remained unusually high in Western countries even after the peak of the Covid-19 crisis had passed.

It was subsequently cited in numerous anti-vaccine articles and social media posts claiming the study had directly linked the continued excess deaths to Covid-19 vaccinations.

The study itself did not explicitly make that connection.

However, its authors concluded that "excess mortality has remaine...