VAERS was established in 1990 by the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to accept reports from the public on adverse events associated with vaccine licensed in the United States. VAERS data are monitored in order to:
- Detect new, unusual, or rare vaccine adverse events
- Monitor increases in known adverse events
- Identify potential patient risk factors for particular types of adverse events
- Identify vaccine lots with increased numbers or types of reported adverse events
- Assess the safety of newly licensed vaccines
Although VAERS provides useful information on vaccine safety, the data are somewhat limited. Specifically, judgments about whether a vaccine was truly responsible for an adverse event cannot be made from VAERS reports because of incomplete information.
More information about VAERS
Center for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) web pages on Vaccine Safety and Adverse Events