VAERS is user-generated content. I can go in there and file a report that I grew a third arm after vaccination and it'll go in.
Dying or having an adverse event after vaccination also isn't the same as dying from vaccination; even the genuine VAERS reports don't permit teasing this wrinkle out on their own.
> I can go in there and file a report that I grew a third arm after vaccination and it'll go in.
And you'd be committing a felony. I see this idea tossed around all the time that tons of the reports coming in are fake, but so far have seen scant evidence that that's the case.
> Dying or having an adverse event after vaccination also isn't the same as dying from vaccination; even the genuine VAERS reports don't permit teasing this wrinkle out on their own.
Okay, but then why are so many more people reporting dying after Covid-19 vaccination than have reported dying after flu shots which have been administered to millions of people for decades?
> In a July 2005 web post, Dr. James R. Laidler wrote: "The chief problem with the VAERS data is that reports can be entered by anyone and are not routinely verified. To demonstrate this, a few years ago I entered a report that an influenza vaccine had turned me into The Hulk. The report was accepted and entered into the database.
> "Because the reported adverse event was so… unusual," Laidler wrote, "a representative of VAERS contacted me. After a discussion of the VAERS database and its limitations, they asked for my permission to delete the record, which I granted. If I had not agreed, the record would be there still, showing that any claim can become part of the database, no matter how outrageous or improbable."
> Moss explained one way VAERS can amplify fears about the COVID-19 vaccine in particular. Most vaccinations are given to a small segment of the population: young, healthy children, who are generally less likely to have health problems afterward. But the COVID-19 vaccine is given to a much larger group — all Americans 16 and older are eligible now. And the earliest recipients included a large number of elderly patients and adults with preexisting health problems.
Do you look at anything other than factchecks? Taken right from the VAERS website (in bold font, no less): "Knowingly filing a false VAERS report is a violation of Federal law (18 U.S. Code § 1001) punishable by fine and imprisonment." A single case of a doctor submitting a goofy report in 2005 (and even having the CDC follow up with him!) doesn't establish a widespread pattern. Has even a single such incident been reported with the Covid VAERS submissions? I have to imagine the media would be keen to trumpet it, given their evident interest in putting out the word that there's "nothing to see here" in the VAERS numbers.
> Moss explained one way VAERS can amplify fears about the COVID-19 vaccine in particular. Most vaccinations are given to a small segment of the population: young, healthy children, who are generally less likely to have health problems afterward. But the COVID-19 vaccine is given to a much larger group — all Americans 16 and older are eligible now. And the earliest recipients included a large number of elderly patients and adults with preexisting health problems.
This is trivially accounted for by comparing Covid and influenza vaccines. If I limit to ages 18-59 I get ~73,000 total adverse events for influenza vaccines across their entire history, and 173,000 adverse events for Covid vaccines since they started to be administered at the beginning of the year.
It really is not "trivially accounted for" in this manner. The flu is an annual thing that most people are coping well with mentally. Can't quite say the same about the latest pandemic, and people's attitudes and beliefs are going to significantly colour the amount and nature of the self-reporting system.
Those are separate concerns from the age/demographic ones I was addressing. I could see what you raise driving some difference in the rates of reporting to VAERS. I could not see it driving a difference of, say, zero "Death + Life Threatening" reports for influenza vaccines in 2020 versus 2,857 "Death + Life Threatening" reports for Covid vaccines in 2021 for the 18-59 age group.
Dying or having an adverse event after vaccination also isn't the same as dying from vaccination; even the genuine VAERS reports don't permit teasing this wrinkle out on their own.