Key figures in the anti-vaccine movement have latched onto the public database, incorrectly saying the vaccines directly caused numerous injuries listed in VAERS. Meanwhile, concerned citizens are increasingly stumbling upon the database and finding themselves alarmed by the reports.Although VAERS contains millions of reports of injuries following vaccinations, the vast majority of those injuries are coincidental.
Added Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children's Hospital and an ABC News contributor:"This is a frontline system which can quickly capture data about what's happening in the population through self-report." And because it's a crowdsourced system, VAERS is the best way to detect extremely rare side effects that may not otherwise have been identified.
For public health experts, the expected frequency of health problems -- such as one heart attack every 40 seconds -- is called the expected"background rate." The VAERS system helps identify problems that exceed the expected background rate.Government agencies look systemically for patterns related to the vaccine, and when someone gets sick or dies shortly after the vaccine, this is investigated in a very serious fashion to ensure there is no link or inaccurate reporting.
They probably should've had a similar system for the rest of their consumer products and medical devices.