We know that reports to VAERS are unverified.
“When evaluating data from VAERS, it is important to note that for any reported event, no cause-and-effect relationship has been established. Reports of all possible associations between vaccines and adverse events (possible side effects) are filed in VAERS. Therefore, VAERS collects data on any adverse event following vaccination, be it coincidental or truly caused by a vaccine. The report of an adverse event to VAERS is not documentation that a vaccine caused the event.”
Guide to Interpreting VAERS Data
They can’t be used to prove causality or definitively say that an adverse reaction or side effect was caused by a vaccine.
Did 79.4% of the Reported Child Deaths to VAERS Get a Vaccine on the Day They Died?
Still, it might be surprising to learn that in the majority of reports to VAERS about deaths in children, most had been vaccinated on the day they died.

Is that true?
It’s actually not.
The idea for the statistic comes from a report, Deaths Reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, United States, 1997–2013, that was published in the 2015 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases.
“No concerning pattern was noted among death reports submitted to VAERS during 1997–2013.”
Moro et al on Deaths Reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System
Wait.
How do we get to “no concerning pattern was noted” to 79.4% of the kids were vaccinated on the day they died?
“For child death reports, 79.4% received >1 vaccine on the same day.”
Moro et al on Deaths Reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System
All the report is saying is that for kids who were vaccinated, 79.4% of them received more than one vaccine on the same day. It wasn’t the day they died though.
That kids would get more than one vaccine on the same day isn’t surprising. Few parents skip or delay vaccines so much that they just get one shot at a time.
“In our VAERS review, we did not detect any concerning patterns that would suggest causal relationships between vaccination and deaths.”
Moro et al on Deaths Reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System
If anything, this report confirms that vaccines are safe and with few risks.
“The number of death reports in children exceeded those in adults in all years, and in both groups the number of reports has decreased in recent years.”
Moro et al on Deaths Reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System
It is surprising that anti-vaccine folks would use it to try and scare folks away from vaccinating and protecting their kids.
More on Deaths Reported to VAERS
- VAXOPEDIA – First Day Deaths and the Hepatitis B Vaccine
- VAXOPEDIA – How Many People Die in the USA Every Year from Being Vaccinated?
- VAXOPEDIA – Using and Misusing VAERS Reports
- VAXOPEDIA – Underreporting of Side Effects to VAERS
- VAXOPEDIA – Reporting to VAERS
- VAXOPEDIA – Vaccines and Sudden Unexplained Death in Children
- VAXOPEDIA – Has the United States’ Infant Mortality Rate Ranking Been Dropping as We Vaccinate More Kids?
- VAXOPEDIA – Does Japan have the Lowest Infant Mortality Rate Following a Ban on Mandatory Vaccinations?
- Study – Deaths following vaccination: What does the evidence show?
- Study – Deaths Reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, United States, 1997-2013.
The anti-vaccine activist who came up with the claim consistently appears to misread papers and articles. It’s surprising that the rest just accept the errors so uncritically.
It also says within the 6 year period that 1244 children died and the cause of death for 44% of those were SIDS. The CDC admits that only about 1-10% of adverse reactions are reported to VAERS in the first place. So I wonder what the real number of SIDS deaths after vaccines are? As usual, pro vax will claim there’s nothing to see here!
Pardon me, 16 year period***
Although the report does not state that child deaths occurred on the same day that children received their vaccinations, it also doesn’t state when these deaths occurred relative to having received vaccinations, i.e. # of deaths within one week, two weeks, three weeks, etc. after vaccination. I think this would have been pertinent information to add in support of the conclusion that “No concerning pattern was noted among death reports submitted to VAERS during 1997–2013.”