VAERS

Anti-vaccine proponents love to quote from VAERS – Results Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System.

“VAERS is a national vaccine safety surveillance program co-sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). VAERS is a post-marketing safety surveillance program, collecting information about adverse events (possible side effects) that occur after the administration of vaccines licensed for use in the United States.”[8]

Now VAERS is a government site created to allow citizens to bring their stories to light and give them an opportunity to tell the public what happened to them. People from the anti-vaccine movement love to use this site, because it is one that speculates about that  which they believe, but it will look like it is coming from a credible government source. It is a way to throw the government back in the face of those in favor of vaccines. Or perhaps down deep, anti-vaxxers know or at least recognize there must be resources with some degree of credible or national recognition in order to persuade anyone to their beliefs.

The problem is, anyone can post to this site. Nothing is validated, nothing is proved with science. It is personal testimonies of citizens' private beliefs. Anyone with any agenda can go on this site and lie or distort facts, even making false claims.

Further, most that quote statistics from this site ignore the following information posted on the home page.

“VAERS receives around 30,000 reports annually, with 13% classified as serious (e.g., associated with disability, hospitalization, life-threatening illness or death) (CDC VAERS Master Search Tool, April 2, 2008). Since 1990, VAERS has received over 200,000 reports, most of which describe mild side effects such as fever. Very rarely, people experience serious adverse events following immunization. By monitoring such events, VAERS helps to identify any important new safety concerns and thereby assists in ensuring that the benefits of vaccines continue to be far greater than the risks.

Many different types of adverse events occur after vaccination. About 85-90% of the reports describe mild adverse events such as fever, local reactions, and episodes of crying or mild irritability. The remaining reports reflect serious adverse events involving life-threatening conditions, hospitalization, permanent disability, or death, which may or may not have been caused by a vaccine.”[9]

Besides stating the extremely high percentage of mild reactions, also noted on the site is the fact there is no judgment in regard to the claims posted.

“VAERS accepts all reports without judging whether the event was caused by the vaccine.”

And an additional quote from the website states:

“Note: Submission of a VAERS report does not constitute admission that healthcare personnel or the vaccine caused or contributed to the event.”[10]

In other words, one may just assume the reaction is caused by the vaccine without proof, but they are still able to report. There are limitations to VAERS’ statistics that must be considered before a blanket conclusion of any type can be reached.