Is the US’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System broken? (BMJ, 10 November 2023)

Summary

A BMJ investigation has raised concerns that the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) isn’t operating as intended and that signals are being missed. VAERS is supposed to be user friendly, responsive, and transparent. However, investigations by The BMJ have uncovered that it’s not meeting its own standards. Not only have staffing levels failed to keep pace with the unprecedented number of reports since the rollout of covid vaccines but there are signs that the system is overwhelmed, reports aren’t being followed up, and signals are being missed.

The BMJ has spoken to more than a dozen people, including physicians and a state medical examiner, who have filed VAERS reports of a serious nature on behalf of themselves or patients and were never contacted by clinical reviewers or were contacted months later.