Unfortunately, the more you discuss vaccines and known side effects with others, the more you will encounter individuals that at one time may have exhibited symptoms of a vaccine reaction that should have been reported to VAERS. Educating others on what VAERS is and when to report something is crucial as it provides the necessary data to improve overall vaccine safety.

Established in 1990, VAERS is a national, early warning system to detect possible safety problems in U.S.-licensed vaccines. VAERS is co-managed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (the CDC) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (the FDA). VAERS accepts and analyzes reports of adverse events (possible side effects) after a person has received a vaccination. Anyone can report an adverse event to VAERS. Healthcare professionals are required by federal law to report certain adverse events and vaccine manufacturers are required to report all adverse events that come to their attention.

VAERS is a passive reporting system, meaning it relies on individuals to send in reports of their experiences to CDC and FDA. VAERS is not designed to determine if a vaccine caused a health problem, but is especially useful for detecting unusual or unexpected patterns of adverse event reporting that might indicate a possible safety problem with a vaccine. This way, VAERS can provide CDC and FDA with valuable information that additional work and evaluation is necessary to further assess a possible safety concern.

Due to VAERS being a passive system, we now know that less than 1% of vaccine adverse events and injuries are reported and accounted for.