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Fact Check Analysis Corrections Blue Feed Red Feed Corona Virus



FACT CHECK: CDC'S VAERS 'REPORTS' ARE NOT SOLID PROOF OF VACCINE INJURIES OR
DEATHS -- JUST STARTING POINT FOR CDC, FDA INVESTIGATORS


FACT CHECK

 * Jun 14, 2021
 * by: Dean Miller

Share Tweet
Distorts VAERS

Does the government's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) provide
data or reports that prove the COVID-19 vaccine or other vaccines have caused
injuries or deaths? No, that's not true: As the VAERS webpage itself repeatedly
explains, its purpose is to collect a wide-open, likely repetitive, messy and
incomplete list of anyone's anecdotal, amateur, professional and even malicious
reports of post-vaccination problems.

Sifting through the list of unverified reports, the Food and Drug Administration
and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hope to spot groups of similar
reports. The agencies can then investigate them to sort out coincidences from
real side effects. A rare side effect that doesn't show up in the clinical
trials on tens of thousands of patients can affect a few dozen when the drug is
cleared for use and injected into millions of patients. That's when it might
show up as a pattern of reports in VAERS.

Even that pattern is not itself evidence, since those reports must be checked
for authenticity to determine if the VAERS report highlighted a coincidental
health event or a vaccine-caused reaction.

The latest version of this misuse of information from the VAERS site appeared in
a June 5 Instagram post (archived here) on the Awakened_mama account under the
title "Latest VAERS Data Show: 5,165 Deaths Reported Following COVID Vaccines"

It continued:

> We've hit 5k 💔💔💔💔💔

> 

Social media users saw this:



(Source: Instagram screenshot taken Fri June 11 at ‏‎21:14:58 UTC 2021)

CORRELATION DOES NOT PROVE CAUSATION

Even if every death reported to VAERS is authentic, it is still not logical to
assume that every post-vaccination death was vaccine-caused. As Lead Stories
pointed out in a January 27, 2021, fact check, that kind of thinking is a prime
example of a logical fallacy: Correlation (event B follows event A) is not the
same as causation (event B was not caused by event A).

Public health experts have repeatedly reminded those spooked by scare-monger
reports derived from the VAERS material that in the first weeks of the U.S.
vaccination campaign, the COVID shots were only available to those already in
jeopardy: health care workers and the elderly and those with underlying health
problems. In that group, death is not rare and blaming their deaths on the
vaccine ignores serious threats to their health.

Thousands of people die every day in the U.S., most often from heart disease,
cancer and accidental injuries. Assuming every death in the VAERS lists is
vaccine-caused is a bit like believing ice cream causes sunburn because every
time you go to the beach and eat ice cream you come home with a sunburn.

THE CDC/FDA TEAM IN CHARGE OF VAERS WARNS AGAINST FAULTY ASSUMPTIONS

VAERS is not a precise instrument of measure, nor is it a dataset from which
accurate predictions or reports can be assembled. VAERS reports are unverified,
can be filed by anyone and, according to the CDC, may include information that
is incomplete, inaccurate or coincidental. Multiple people could file a report
on the same case. Malicious pranksters could make false reports.

It's a hodgepodge of anecdotal information, not a library of fully investigated
cases. When it works correctly, it helps the CDC and FDA monitor the rollout of
a new vaccine by revealing patterns.

The website for VAERS makes clear the system's uses and limitations.

People who copy material from the site and post claims, implications or leading
questions that encourage readers to see VAERS as a list of proven deaths and
injuries are either choosing to deceive or are ignorant of the purpose of the
VAERS system. The people creating "VAERS reports thousands of deaths" memes
would have seen the relevant warnings if they actually looked at VAERS data. The
site reads:

> When evaluating data from VAERS, it is important to note that for any reported
> event, no cause-and-effect relationship has been established. Reports of all
> possible associations between vaccines and adverse events (possible side
> effects) are filed in VAERS. Therefore, VAERS collects data on any adverse
> event following vaccination, be it coincidental or truly caused by a vaccine.
> The report of an adverse event to VAERS is not documentation that a vaccine
> caused the event ... VAERS reports can be submitted voluntarily by anyone,
> including healthcare providers, patients, or family members. Reports vary in
> quality and completeness. They often lack details and sometimes can have
> information that contains errors.

And, also:

> A report to VAERS generally does not prove that the identified vaccine(s)
> caused the adverse event described. It only confirms that the reported event
> occurred sometime after vaccine was given. No proof that the event was caused
> by the vaccine is required in order for VAERS to accept the report. VAERS
> accepts all reports without judging whether the event was caused by the
> vaccine.

MEME-MAKERS OF SCARY VAERS NUMBERS HAVE BROKEN THEIR WORD

To gain access to the VAERS data, you have to affirm that you have reads the
VAERS website's warning about what VAERS is and is not. So, the person pushing
memes to you about scary VAERS material either lied when they said they read the
warnings or lied when they said they understood them. Worse, if they read and
understood and still claim VAERS is proof of vaccine deaths, a reader would be
justified in concluding the meme maker has malicious intent.



VAERS APPEARS TO DO WHAT IT'S INTENDED TO DO

In April, the FDA found a cluster of six cases of rare blood clots among the 8
million people who had received the Johnson & Johnson/Janssen vaccine and
ordered a pause. After revising the warning data and noting women seem most
likely to be affected by the less-than-one-in-a-million adverse reaction, the
FDA cleared J&J/Janssen again for use, noting the benefits of protection from
COVID-19 outweigh the extremely rare case of a clots that doctors now know to be
alert for and can warn their female patients to quickly seek medical help if
symptoms arise. The CDC's report on 88 deaths among vaccine patients found three
had thrombosis and did not definitively assign vaccination as the cause of
death. Investigation continues, the CDC reported.

The CDC updates the public on the outcome of investigations that arise from
observation of the VAERS data at this link on its website. As of June 11, 2021,
the CDC reported the vaccines safe and effective, based on the fact that more
than 300 million Americans have received the vaccines, government monitoring is
some of the most intense in history and investigation of cases of death after
vaccination "have not established a causal link to the vaccines.


WANT TO INFORM OTHERS ABOUT THE ACCURACY OF THIS STORY?

https://leadstories.com/hoax-alert/2021/06/fact-check-vaers-reports-are-never-proof-of-vaccine-injuries-or-deaths.html
https://leadstories.com/hoax-alert/2021/06/fact-check-vaers-reports-are-never-proof-of-vaccine-injuries-or-deaths.html
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Lead Stories is working with the CoronaVirusFacts/DatosCoronaVirus Alliance, a
coalition of more than 100 fact-checkers who are fighting misinformation related
to the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn more about the alliance here.

> Lead Stories staff writer Dean Miller has edited daily and weekly newspapers,
> worked as a reporter for more than a decade and is co-author of two
> non-fiction books. After a one-year Harvard Nieman Fellowship, he served as
> Director of Stony Brook University’s Center for News Literacy for six years.
> As Senior Vice President/Content at Connecticut Public Broadcasting, a dual
> licensee, he oversaw radio, TV and print journalists, and documentary
> producers. He moved west to teach journalism at Western Washington University,
> edit The Port Townsend Leader and write the twice-weekly Save The Free Press
> column for the Seattle Times. Miller won the 2007 national Mirror Award for
> news industry coverage and he led the team that won the 2005 Scripps Howard
> first amendment prize. 
> 
> Read more about or contact Dean Miller

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Spotted something? Let us know!.

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 * Member of the #CoronavirusFacts Alliance


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Lead Stories is a fact checking website that is always looking for the latest
false, deceptive or inaccurate stories (or media) making the rounds on the
internet.
Spotted something? Let us know!.

LEAD STORIES IS A:

 * Verified signatory of the IFCN Code of Principles
 * Facebook Third-Party Fact-Checking Partner
 * Member of the #CoronavirusFacts Alliance

Follow us on social media

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