The Problem With VAERS

Anti Vax Bullshit

I’m sure you have seen numerous people bring up VAERS. This typically gets brought up in the COVID-19 conversation. But what is VAERS? How is VAERS supposed to be used? How can we tell when someone is misusing it? Let’s get into it.

VAERS

The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) is a monitoring system used by the CDC and FDA to monitor vaccine safety. In the past, numerous legal issues came up with individuals claiming they were harmed by vaccines. These claims were often not based on strong evidence, but this did worry vaccine manufacturers.

So, the US government passed National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (NCVIA) in order to incentivize manufacturers to keep making essential vaccines. Perhaps this is due to the fact drug manufacturers do not make that much money from vaccines, they make a lot more when you get sick. Nevertheless, after passing NCVIA the system we know as VAERS was created.

VAERS is meant to be an early warning detection system for possible reactions and issues from vaccines.

The Limits of VAERS

VAERS can be useful for pointing out potential patterns and issues with vaccines. For example, the system initially detected intestinal blockage linked to the vaccine RotaShield.

However, VAERS cannot tell you causality only further investigation by experts can establish if adverse reactions were caused by vaccines or something else.

VAERS is also poor at calculating risk. We cannot tell from VAERS alone if the risk of developing an adverse reaction from a vaccine is rare or not. We also cannot tell how this risk compares to the population on average, those who are infected by the disease the vaccine is designed to prevent, or within the total population of those vaccinated.

Another weakness lies in its data collection, nearly anyone from healthcare professionals to you or me can submit a report to VAERS. Nearly anyone’s report can be accepted which can lead to cases of inaccurate, misleading, or incomplete reports in the database.

But let’s quote the site directly:

VAERS accepts reports of adverse events and reactions that occur following vaccination. Healthcare providers, vaccine manufacturers, and the public can submit reports to the system. While very important in monitoring vaccine safety, VAERS reports alone cannot be used to determine if a vaccine caused or contributed to an adverse event or illness. The reports may contain information that is incomplete, inaccurate, coincidental, or unverifiable. In large part, reports to VAERS are voluntary, which means they are subject to biases. This creates specific limitations on how the data can be used scientifically. Data from VAERS reports should always be interpreted with these limitations in mind.

Turning Into The Hulk

Just to show the blatant issues with using the VAERS system.

Anesthesiologist James Laidler submitted an alarming report to VAERS. After getting the influenza vaccine his muscles grew and his skin turned green… he became the Incredible Hulk.

Obviously, the influenza vaccine does not turn someone into the Hulk, but this showcases issues with using an open warning detection system for drawing conclusions about anything.

There are also funny reports about vaccines being connected to suicide and lightning strikes.

At best VAERS is a hypothesis generator and a surveillance system. Yet this has not stopped some anti-vaxxers from misusing it to draw their own conclusions. This holds true within the issue of COVID-19 vaccines and myocarditis. People are depending on self-reported events of myocarditis without follow-up.

We do not know if every child or individual claimed to have myocarditis from the vaccine actually has myocarditis. We also do not know from VAERS the overall risk of developing myocarditis from the vaccine. But we do know covid infections increase the rate of myocarditis as well. VAERS cannot even allow us to compare this risk.

Take-Home

• The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) is a monitoring system used by the CDC and FDA to monitor vaccine safety.

• VAERS reports alone cannot be used to determine if a vaccine caused or contributed to an adverse event or illness.

• VAERS cannot be used to state there is a causal relationship between COVID-19 vaccines and myocarditis.

• Anti-vaxxers routinely ignore the intended usage of VAERS and inappropriately use it to make causal claims pertaining to vaccines and adverse events.