Report Vaccine Reactions. It’s the Law!

by National Vaccine Information Center

This webpage provides the public with the ability to search and analyze data on vaccine reactions and links for reporting vaccine adverse events.

NVIC worked with Congress to pass the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 and was responsible for urging the creation of safety provisions in that historic law. This included a centralized vaccine reaction reporting system, the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS), that is jointly operated by the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

Although this law requires doctors and other vaccine providers to report hospitalizations, injuries, deaths and serious health problems following vaccination to VAERS, it is estimated that less than 10 percent, perhaps less than one percent of all vaccine-related health problems are ever reported to VAERS.

As a society we need to know how many people who get vaccinated are getting sick after vaccination and how many go on to die or are permanently injured. It is very important that ALL serious health problems, which develop after vaccination, be reported to VAERS. You should make a vaccine adverse event report to VAERS if you or your child has regressed physically, mentally or emotionally after vaccination or has experienced acute symptoms within hours, days or weeks of vaccination.

Please visit our Ask 8, If You Vaccinate webpage for information on vaccine reaction symptoms and our injury compensation webpage to learn more about filing an injury claim.

Reporting & Searching for Vaccine Reactions

Since 1990, the U.S. Government has collected adverse event reports following the administration of vaccinations. This data is stored in the VAERS database and is available for anyone to search or download.

NVIC is proud to host MedAlerts, a powerful VAERS database search engine. MedAlerts is more user-friendly and offers increased search and reporting capabilities in comparison to the government’s CDC Wonder search engine. MedAlerts examines symptoms, vaccines, dates, places, and more.

Online documentation for MedAlerts helps guide users through the use of the search engine. You can also download the data to do local analysis.

Before searching the data, please read the U.S. Government disclaimer.

Since 1982, the NVIC has operated a Vaccine Reaction Registry, which has served as a watchdog on reports submitted to VAERS.

Reporting vaccine reactions to VAERS is the law and it is also a way to generate information that will help reduce vaccine risks for everyone.

If your doctor will not report a serious health problem you or your child suffers following vaccination, you have the right to report a suspected vaccine reaction to VAERS.