What VAERS Doesn’t Tell Us: The Hidden Truth About Vaccine Injury Reporting

Why the numbers may be much higher than we think—and why it matters for informed health decisions

If you’ve ever tried to look up vaccine side effects and landed on VAERS (the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System), you might have thought, “Well, that doesn’t look too bad.”

But here’s the thing most people don’t realize—VAERS isn’t giving us the whole picture.

Not even close.

VAERS is a passive surveillance system, which means it relies on people (like doctors, nurses, or you and me) to voluntarily report any adverse events after vaccination.

It’s not actively tracking or following up with people. No system checks in with you a few days or weeks later to ask, “Hey, how are you doing after that shot?”