What is underreporting and why it matters?
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VAERS is widely acknowledged, even by the CDC, to be vastly underreported. From their Dataguide:
"'Underreporting' is one of the main limitations of passive surveillance systems, including VAERS. The term, underreporting, refers to the fact that VAERS receives reports for only a small fraction of actual adverse events. The degree of underreporting varies widely."[1]
The Lazarus report from Harvard Pilgrim Health Care in 2009 used Epic (one of the largest electronic medical records systems used in the US) to gather data automatically from the system.[2]
“Every patient receiving a vaccine was automatically identified, and for the next 30 days, their health care diagnostic codes, laboratory tests, and medication prescriptions are evaluated for values suggestive of an adverse vaccine event. When a possible adverse event was detected, it was recorded, and the appropriate clinician was to be notified electronically.”
The researchers attempted to make filing a report easier as well. "Clinicians' in-basket messaging was designed to provide a preview of a pre-populated report with information from the electronic health records about the patient, including vaccine type, lot number, and possible adverse effect, to inform their clinical judgment regarding whether they wish to send a report to VAERS. Clinicians would then have the option of adding free-text comments to pre-populated VAERS reports or to document their decision not to send a report."
The results of the report state, "Preliminary data were collected from June 2006 through October 2009 on 715,000 patients, and 1.4 million doses (of 45 different vaccines) that were given to 376,452 individuals. Of these doses, 35,570 possible reactions (2.6 percent of vaccinations) were identified."
Further it states, "Adverse events from drugs and vaccines are common, but underreported. Although 25% of ambulatory patients experience an adverse drug event, less than 0.3% of all adverse drug events and 1-13% of serious events are reported to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Likewise, fewer than 1% of vaccine adverse events are reported."
The results clearly showed that injury was much more common than the one-in-a-million lie that is often cited.
More recently Steve Kirsch and Dr. Jessica Rose have both calculated an Under Reporting Factor (URF) for Covid vaccine injuries. Steve used multiple methods to confirm a URF of approximately 41.[3] Dr. Rose used of the current Department of Defense Medical Epidemiology Database (DMED) miscarriage rates to calculate a URF of 49.[4]
1. https://vaers.hhs.gov/data/dataguide.html
2. https://digital.ahrq.gov/sites/default/files/docs/publication/r18hs017045-lazarus-final-report-2011.pdf
3. https://stevekirsch.substack.com/p/latest-vaers-estimate-388000-americans
4. https://jessicar.substack.com/p/the-true-under-reporting-factor-urf