Apparently people are still arguing over whether the COVID vaccines saved lives on net, sometimes speaking of "lots of people dying mysteriously" or an uptick in cancer rates.
Fortunately, we have detailed data on this. The ONS in the UK has been tracking all-cause mortality, which is basically an unfakeable statistic, for people who've ever received any kind of COVID vaccination vs those who have not, and the data are pretty clear.
I downloaded the ONS Excel spreadsheet, extracted the data, and graphed it.
The vaccines saved a huge number of lives during the worst parts of the pandemic, and 1-2 years later, with COVID deaths now quite rare in general, people who are COVID-vaccinated are still slightly less likely to die of any cause than people who aren't.
This doesn't rule out the possibility of very long term (2+ year) side effects of the vaccine, but the data are looking very good so far. Science and aggressive capital expenditures saved the day.
(For those curious, I've been taking minimal COVID precautions for months now; I still carry a mask in my pocket for air or subway travel, or if I get a Lyft driver who's clearly sick, but otherwise I'm happily doing lots of things indoors unmasked.)