Labels Matter: VAERS
During the COVID pandemic, a vaccine safety monitoring system misled the American public.
On February 13, 2024, National Geographic Press will be publishing a book I wrote called, TELL ME WHEN IT’S OVER: AN INSIDER’S GUIDE TO DECIPHERING COVID MYTHS AND NAVIGATING A POST-PANDEMIC WORLD. Before publication, I will be writing about various issues discussed in that book.
The term used to describe one vaccine safety monitoring system has confused the American public for more than 30 years.
November 1986
The Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS)
On May 6, 2021, Tucker Carlson said that “3,362 people apparently died after getting COVID-19 vaccines…more people, according to VAERS, have died after getting the [COVID] shot…than from all the other vaccines.” Carlson was referring to a federal reporting system that is frequently misused by anti-vaccine activists called the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS). The system, which was created as part of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act in 1986, is run jointly by the FDA and CDC. Here’s how it works. Anyone who suspects that a serious side effect has occurred following a vaccine can fill out a one-page form online. Doctors, patients, parents, teachers, personal injury lawyers, conspiracy theorists, science deniers, and anti-vaccine activists can fill out the form. Everything that is reported will appear in the system’s database, which is publicly available. If you report that following receipt of a vaccine you turned into the Incredible Hulk, this will appear in the database, as was proven by an anesthesiologist in Portland, Oregon, named Jim Laidler, who did it.
So, when Tucker Carlson reported that more than 3,000 people had died following receipt of COVID vaccines, all that proved was that COVID vaccines don’t make you immortal. Even if you get the vaccine, you might die from something else. Indeed, all these reported deaths were evaluated and found to have another cause. "There's very little control over what can be accessed and what can be manipulated [in VAERS]," says Melanie Smith, director of analysis at Graphika, a company that tracks vaccine misinformation online. Smith says that VAERS data are shared across a wide variety of anti-vaccine social media channels. "I would say almost every mis- and disinformation story that we cover is accompanied by some set of VAERS data."
The only way to know whether a vaccine causes a problem is to determine whether the problem occurs more frequently in those who are vaccinated than in those who aren’t. VAERS doesn’t provide that kind of information. But other federal programs, like the Vaccine Safety DataLink (VSD), do. The VSD program evaluates serious side effects in people who are vaccinated and compares them in real time to people who aren’t vaccinated. Most of the claims made in VAERS disappear under closer scrutiny by the VSD.
VAERS is misnamed. Any reasonable person would assume that a program titled Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System would only include problems caused by vaccines. In truth, it’s a noisy system that includes almost no problems caused by vaccines. Perhaps calling it Suspected Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (SVAERS) would help.
Have you ever tried to file a VAERS report?!? It’s not easy. I highly doubt people are just doing it for fun. I’ve never had issues with any vaccine in my life. Went to get my first Pfizer shot, a perfectly healthy 38 year old cyclist, and within 24 hours everything went downhill. Ended up on immune suppressing meds for months. I’ve never felt that terrible in my life. And guess what. That was over two years ago and I’ve heard not a thing from VAERS!
The only vaccine that did not have a list of potential side effects paperwork to read and sign I have ever taken was the emergency use mRNA shot from Pfizer. Why is that? Did they not know yet? Have you noticed that EVERY other drug advertised on TV lists all potential side effects in a rapid fire monologue but nothing from all those Pfizer ads still running on TV.
Dr Offit...I have two elderly parents who have religiously vaccinated and boosted. One of them took the first available and 5 days later was hospitalized with clots in both lungs. The hospital kept testing for Covid saying she must have Covid. She was negative every day. Finally they sent her home and said that even though she had not had a DVT prior, she must have had a DVT. Both lungs - many clots...not your typical situation. Honestly none of us thought there was a relation to the vaccine at the time because she is old. It was 5 days later most of us think an allergic or adverse event is going to occur within an hour or 24 hours as most paperwork with vaccines says BOLO for that time frame. Clots had never been mentioned as a potential adverse event or certainly not publicized. She has been on anti coagulation since then has continued to take all the boosters. The last booster she had, she had severe chest pain 48 hours later and her 02 dropped to the 70s. Back to the ER. Tested for everything under the sun. Nothing was wrong. She was told it was GERD and sent home. Now I ask this. Since when does GERD drop your oxygen? It took about 24 hours while she was in hospital for the pain to resolve and she was able to maintain her sats with supplemental oxygen. When pain resolved O2 went back up.
My parents are well educated with excellent health care. They even have a concierge physician - he was the one who told my mom to go to the hospital when she called about the severe pain that turned out to be the clots. Imagine if she had not made that call. Imagine if at 85 she had just died at home. Would anyone have examined COD? Probably not. She is elderly. How many elderly might have died after the vaccines but were just old. Our parents went to the health dept to get their shots. Neither their family practice nor the hospital even asked about her vaccine status that first time in the hospital. That shot info was at public health. Do you have confidence that follow up for all the high risk individuals who got the mRNA vaccine were properly followed? Can we be confident that side effects won’t be things we see over time? I personally - not to overshare watched my 19 year old daughter’s lymph nodes in her neck swell to the size of baseballs after the second shot. Took about 8 weeks to resolve. I am a healthy individual who also vaccinated and was unable to continue for three months with my regular exercise regime. Went to see my doctor who decided I had adult onset exercise induced asthma. He is a good man but I did not start an inhaler. I made an appt with a cardiologist who could not see me for two plus months. About the time of my appt it was resolving. I was told I must have had Covid. But I tested multiple times. Never positive. I have four children who received all the vaccines available. I believe in our healthcare systems. Or rather I did. But none of my three boys under 20 got the shots.
You mention the VAERS does follow up on cases. I reported my moms, my daughters and my symptoms post vaccine to Pfizer, Moderna and VAERS and that was not easy. I have not heard from anyone. I am nervous about posting this publicly. So much shaming involved if you speak out. But I have been following you and I respect you and believe you are about public health and not beholden to funding sources. I agree VAERS is a suspect data source. But how are we following up? How can we be sure that all these vaccinated people who are still getting Covid are faring better than if they would just stop boosting?