Data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) released Friday show 1,517,779 adverse events were reported between Dec. 14, 2020, and Feb. 3, 2023, attributed to COVID-19 vaccines. This includes 280,992 reports of serious injuries and 34,270 deaths.
Of the 34,270 reported deaths, 21,479 cases are attributed to Pfizer, 9,638 to Moderna, 2,944 to Johnson & Johnson, and 0 to Novavax. Of the reported deaths, 9% occurred within 24 hours of vaccination, and 13% occurred within 48 hours of vaccination.
VAERS is a voluntary reporting system co-managed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) designed to detect vaccine safety signals. The data released is usually one week behind, so data released Friday, on Feb. 10, reflects reports up to Jan. 3, 2023.
Excluding “foreign reports” to VAERS, 934,701 adverse events, including 16,824 deaths and 100,284 serious injuries, were reported in the U.S. between Dec. 14, 2020, and Feb. 3, 2023.
Foreign reports are reports from foreign subsidiaries sent to U.S. vaccine manufacturers. Under FDA regulations, if a manufacturer is notified of a foreign case report describing an event that is both serious and does not appear on the product’s labeling, the manufacturer must submit the report to VAERS.
In the U.S., 669 million COVID-19 vaccine doses had been administered as of Feb. 1, including 399 million doses of Pfizer, 251 million doses of Moderna, 19 million doses of Johnson & Johnson, and 76,000 doses of Novavax.
Bivalent Booster Data
As of Feb. 7, 52.5 million people received an untested, updated bivalent booster dose targeting the no-longer-existing Wuhan strain and obsolete BA.4/BA.5 omicron subvariants.
Between the rollout of bivalent boosters in September 2022 and Feb. 3, there have been 21,954 adverse events reported to VAERS, with 39% attributed to Moderna’s booster and 61% attributed to Pfizer/BioNTech. The data included 173 deaths, 1,458 serious injuries, and 63 reports of myocarditis and pericarditis (heart inflammation).
Note the CDC uses a narrowed case definition of “myocarditis,” which allows them to exclude cases of cardiac arrest, ischemic strokes, and deaths due to heart problems that occur before one has the chance to go to the hospital, obtain a diagnosis, or “dies suddenly.”
To meet the case definition of myocarditis, people must have had “symptoms such as chest pain, shortness of breath and feelings of having a fast-beating, fluttering or pounding heart, and medical tests to support the diagnosis of myocarditis and rule out other causes.”
The CDC website does not state what happens to these cases, but there is no indication they are tracked or included in the CDC’s myocarditis numbers.
According to the CDC, VAERS data available to the public include the initial reports to VAERS. Any updates or corrections to reports during follow-up are used by the government for analysis but are not made available to the public. In other words, we may see an initial report for a heart problem that later leads to death, but we will not see an updated report if a person dies, nor will that death be included in the statistics. It’s all very “transparent.”
Data for 6-month-olds to 5-year-olds
- 5,737 adverse events, including 244 cases rated as serious and 14 reported deaths.
The most recent reported death (VAERS I.D. 2573802) involves a 2-year-old girl who received an influenza vaccine with Moderna’s bivalent booster shot and passed away the following day. Of course, the CDC added a lovely sentence noting the “benefit-risk” is not affected by this report, and the cause of death is “unknown.”
Data for 5- to 11-year-olds
- 16,910 adverse events, including 805 rated as serious and 33 reported deaths.
- 48 reports of myocarditis and pericarditis.
- 74 reports of blood clotting disorders.
- 192 reports of seizures.
Data for 12- to 17-year-olds
- 41,332 adverse events, including 4,600 rated as serious and 137 reported deaths.
- 275 reports of anaphylaxis among 12- to 17-year-olds where the reaction was life-threatening, required treatment, or resulted in death.
- 1,349 reports of myocarditis and pericarditis, with 1,181 cases attributed to Pfizer’s vaccine.
- 309 reports of blood clotting disorders, with 282 cases attributed to Pfizer.
- 31 cases of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) were attributed to Pfizer’s vaccine.
Data for all age groups to VAERS
- 16% of deaths were related to cardiac disorders.
- 53% of those who died were male, and 41% were female. The remaining death reports do not list the gender of the deceased.
- The average age of death was 72.
- As of Feb. 3, 8,967 pregnant women reported adverse events related to COVID-19 vaccines, including 5,196 reports of miscarriage or premature birth.
- Of the 17,029 cases of Bell’s palsy reported, 73% were attributed to Pfizer vaccinations, 22% to Moderna, and 5% to J&J.
- 3,205 reports of Guillain-Barré syndrome.
- 10,352 reports of anaphylaxis where the reaction was life-threatening, required treatment or resulted in death.
- 8,928 reports of myocardial infarction and cardiac arrest.
- 45,631 reports of blood-clotting disorders. Of those, 31,312 reports were attributed to Pfizer, 10,316 reports to Moderna, and 3,928 reports to Johnson & Johnson.
- 25,263 cases of myocarditis and pericarditis, with 19,157 cases attributed to Pfizer, 5,612 cases to Moderna, and 437 to Johnson & Johnson.
- 79 cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, with 65 cases attributed to Pfizer, 12 to Moderna, and 2 to J&J.
- 669 cases of POTS, with 495 cases attributed to Pfizer, 148 cases to Moderna, and 25 cases to Johnson & Johnson.
VAERS is estimated to represent only 1% of actual adverse events. Submitted reports require further investigation before a causal relationship can be confirmed; however, U.S. regulatory agencies neither properly investigate nor acknowledge causal relationships between adverse events and COVID-19 vaccines.
Although healthcare providers are required by law to report vaccine adverse events to VAERS, research shows very few do. It is essential that anyone who experiences an adverse event report their own injury.