Frequently asked questions

What is VAERS?

What is VAERS?

Established in 1990, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) is a national early warning system to detect possible safety problems in U.S.-licensed vaccines. VAERS is co-managed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). VAERS accepts and analyzes reports of adverse events (possible side effects) after a person has received a vaccination. Anyone can report an adverse event to VAERS. Healthcare professionals are required to report certain adverse events and vaccine manufacturers are required to report all adverse events that come to their attention.

VAERS is a passive reporting system, meaning it relies on individuals to send in reports of their experiences to CDC and FDA. VAERS is not designed to determine if a vaccine caused a health problem, but is especially useful for detecting unusual or unexpected patterns of adverse event reporting that might indicate a possible safety problem with a vaccine. This way, VAERS can provide CDC and FDA with valuable information that additional work and evaluation is necessary to further assess a possible safety concern.

Read More at VAERS.HHS.GOV

What Countries does the Data come from?

What Countries does the Data come from?

VAERS data is primarily from the United States. Approximately 10% of the reports are from nondomestic sources. These are denoted as FR in the VAERS State field. vaers.hhs.gov says VAERS occasionally receives case reports from US manufacturers that were reported to their foreign subsidiaries. Under FDA regulations, if a manufacturer is notified of a foreign case report that describes an event that is both serious and unexpected (in other words, it does not appear in the product labeling), they are required to submit it to VAERS. It is important to realize that these case reports are of variable data quality and completeness, due to the many differences in country reporting practices and surveillance system quality.

Is your Data exactly the same as HHS Data? Do you edit or correct it?

Is your Data exactly the same as HHS Data? Do you edit or correct it?

We do not change, modify or vet data. We take the downloads, upload them to our server and put a different face on them so they are easier to browse and get quick accurate info from. There are mistakes in the data (impossible dates are usually the most obvious), clearly, but we leave it as we get it.

Why does my HHS/Wonder search result not match yours?

Why does my HHS/Wonder search result not match yours?

The reason we built OpenVAERS in part is due to the difficulty in correctly using the Wonder interface. Without understanding the underlying data tables it is hard to get an accurate number out of the system. Here is how you can replicate our death number for COVID. Use the following settings on the Wonder request form:

Step 1. Group By SEX

Step 2. Select All Symptoms (default)

Step 3. Covid 19 (Covid19 Vaccine)

Step 4. ALL LOCATIONS, All Ages, All Genders

Step 5. Event Category: Death (leave the rest alone)

Click Send

Why is openVAERS necessary?

Why is openVAERS necessary?

We built openVAERS because we wanted a way to browse reports and do simple searches on the data. Once we had that we decided to make it public.

Additionally, CDC/FDA/HHS provide no number surveys (like the UK Yellow Card system) to the general public. Users frequently make mistakes due to lack of understanding the underlying data when using the VAERS interface, and publish that, so VAERS becomes a source of 'misinformation.' OpenVAERS attempts to fill this gap by providing accurate numbers to the general public.

How often is the data updated?

How often is the data updated?

We update the full dataset weekly when VAERS releases its data.

Please keep in mind, VAERS releases data a week behind.

Where can I download the data for myself?

Where can I download the data for myself?

You can download the datasets on the

VAERS.HHS.Gov website.

Where can I report an adverse event?

Where can I report an adverse event?

The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) accepts all reports, including reports of vaccination errors. Guidance on reporting vaccination errors is available if you have additional questions.

Knowingly filing a false VAERS report is a violation of Federal law (18 U.S. Code § 1001) punishable by fine and imprisonment.

Report an Adverse Event Here.

Who is behind OpenVAERS?

Who is behind OpenVAERS?

OpenVAERS is a project developed by a small team of people with vaccine injuries or who have children with vaccine injuries. We do not accept donations or solicit fees. There is zero monetization of this site. It is purely created in order to help others browse the VAERS records and to identify the reported signals that may otherwise get missed.