Buzz
The US government manages a database known as VAERS, where anyone can file a report if they believe something negative occurred after getting vaccinated. While it plays a crucial role in tracking vaccine safety, it’s also being exploited by anti-vaccine activists to amplify fears about vaccines.
VAERS stands for Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. The term “adverse events” refers to harmful occurrences (events) that follow vaccination, but it does not imply that the vaccine caused them. This wording is preferred by scientists and healthcare professionals over terms like “side effects,” which suggests a direct cause-and-effect relationship that is often difficult to prove. For instance, a headache after a shot could be an adverse event. Was it caused by the vaccine? Possibly, but answering that definitively can be challenging.
Understanding the actual usage of VAERS
As the CDC explains here, the VAERS system was created in 1990 as part of a broader set of vaccine safety reforms. (The same legislation also established a no-fault vaccine court to provide compensation for vaccine injuries without the need for lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies.)
Anyone can file a report with VAERS: you, your doctor, a family member, or even your attorney. (While doctors are obligated to report certain adverse events, the majority of submissions are voluntary.) It's somewhat similar to Wikipedia: not everything may be verified, but much of it is likely accurate, and there's a great deal of useful information to be gleaned from the database.
The goal is that if a problem arises with a vaccine, reports will begin appearing in VAERS. Investigators then examine events that are significant, common, or potentially connected. Here’s how the HHS outlines the objectives of the program:
Identify new, unusual, or rare vaccine-related adverse events;
Track increases in already known adverse events;
Identify possible risk factors in patients that could lead to specific adverse events;
Evaluate the safety of newly approved vaccines;
Investigate and manage potential clusters of reports (e.g., localized cases [whether temporal or geographic] or reports tied to specific product batches or lots);
Identify ongoing safety issues and errors in administration;
Implement a national monitoring system to ensure public health safety, capable of responding to emergencies like large-scale vaccination campaigns during pandemics.
VAERS reports can serve as an early indicator if there are issues with a vaccine, or even with a specific batch. It's one of several ways regulators promised to monitor safety as new COVID vaccines are distributed.
The misuse of VAERS
Anti-vaccine groups have been misusing and distorting VAERS data ever since its inception. Since the reports are publicly available, anyone can search the database and they do.
Before accessing the database, you must acknowledge a comprehensive disclaimer that clarifies the reports aren't verified and outlines other key limitations. (Vice recently reported that an activist group created a portal for VAERS that lets users view reports without seeing this disclaimer.)
This creates a problem. Extracting reports that mention 'death' alongside a specific vaccine doesn't mean the vaccine caused those deaths. It merely indicates the person passed away after receiving the vaccine. A recent analysis of COVID vaccine adverse events, including both VAERS and V-SAFE reports, showed that most deaths following vaccination were among elderly residents of long-term care facilities and were unlikely to be vaccine-related.
