Tag: Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System

Statistical Shenanigans?

The manufacturers of Covid-19 vaccines say they are 95% effective. Peter Doshi re-examined the evidence and estimates they are only 19-29% effective. This pre-print of an as-yet unpublished re-analysis raises many questions but doesn't support the claims being made on antivaccine sites.

/ July 5, 2022
VAERS database

As 2021 shambles to a close, the misuse of VAERS by antivaxxers continues apace

Misuse of the VAERS database to spread fear, uncertainty, and doubt about vaccines has been a favorite technique of antivaxxers for decades. Unfortunately, 2021 was the year when this particular antivax trope was turbocharged, and public health messaging seemed powerless to counter it.

/ December 20, 2021
Cardiac MRI

Myocarditis and how to think about it… like a cardiologist

In response to the dumpster-diving VAERS study published earlier this month, pediatric cardiologist and guest blogger Dr. Frank Han adds context by explaining how cardiologists think about and diagnose myocarditis.

/ September 18, 2021

More Thoughts on the VAERS Pre-Print

A recent pre-print inappropriately used VAERS to calculated the rate of myocarditis after the COVID-19 vaccine. However, even if the rate was correct, the article glosses over the dangers of the virus and the efficacy of the vaccine.

/ September 16, 2021
Dumpster diving in VAERS

Dumpster diving in the VAERS database to find more COVID-19 vaccine-associated myocarditis in children

"Dumpster diving" is a term used to describe studies using data from the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System database by authors, almost always antivaxxers, who don't understand its limitations. Last week, non-antivax doctors who should know better fell into this trap when they promoted their study suggesting that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are more dangerous to children than the disease.

/ September 13, 2021
Dumpster diving in VAERS

Peer review of a VAERS dumpster dive

A new preprint study on COVID vaccine myocarditis dives into the VAERS dumpster with predictable and embarrassing results.

/ September 12, 2021
Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine

The efforts of antivaxxers to portray COVID-19 vaccines as harmful or even deadly continue apace (VAERS edition)

With the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines continuing apace, so are the efforts of antivaxxers to portray the vaccines as dangerous. This time around, they've resurrected the old antivaccine trick of deceptively misusing the VAERS database to imply causation from VAERS reports. That's not how VAERS works, however.

/ February 1, 2021
HHS

Vaccine safety monitoring in the age of the COVID-19 pandemic

Last year, the Trump administration essentially disbanded the National Vaccine Program Office, folding it into an office focused on infectious diseases. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. What does this mean for monitoring the safety of the soon-to-be-approved COVID-19 vaccines?

/ October 26, 2020

New book: Anti-vaxxers: How to Challenge a Misinformed Movement

This book is a handy compendium of everything worth knowing about the anti-vaccine movement and how to challenge the misinformation.

/ September 8, 2020

The claim that Gardasil causes premature ovarian failure: Ideology, not science

It’s amazing how, to antivaccine activists, it just so happens that a vaccine that targets a sexually transmitted virus must also destroy a girl’s ovaries. It must be a coincidence, right?

/ March 7, 2016