HHS Plans VAERS Overhaul and Financial Incentives for Vaccine Injury Reports

In addition to providing financial incentives for physicians who submit reports, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is working to overhaul the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) to make it “simpler, more accessible, and easier to use.”

VAERS Could Add Mobile Reporting and Research Tools

The changes would include making VAERS available on mobile devices, allowing physicians to report potential vaccine injuries while on the go. The updated system would also add tools for researchers studying vaccine injuries.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has already awarded an almost $1 million contract to SPN Solutions, a Christian technology company based in Virginia.

Vaccine Injury Information Could Be Added to Medical Records

President Kennedy’s initiative would also require electronic medical records to include information about vaccine-related injuries. The requirement is being implemented through the HHS Office of the National Health Information Technology Coordinator, which oversees federal health information technology standards.

HHS said that adding vaccine injuries to electronic medical records would give health care providers “a more complete picture of a patient’s medical history.”

“We must listen to patients and families who report harm caused by vaccines, not ignore them or gaslight them,” Kennedy said in a statement. “President Trump and I are building a health system that takes vaccines seriously, follows the evidence, and leverages what we’ve learned to make them safer. This is how we restore trust in our public health institutions.”

Experts Support Vaccine Safety Monitoring but Question the Initiative

Health and medical experts agree that monitoring vaccine safety events after approval is important. VAERS has served as a sensitive early-warning system since 1990, and the federal government maintains several other overlapping safety-monitoring systems. The CDC describes the federal vaccine safety monitoring system and its role in tracking potential adverse events.

Experts also support research into rare adverse reactions to vaccines. However, some predict that President Kennedy’s goal is not to improve vaccine safety or advance research, but to continue attacking life-saving vaccines by exaggerating risks and overemphasizing rare outcomes. They say Kennedy and his anti-vaccine allies have long used VAERS in its current form to support those claims.

“Trump and RFK Jr.’s anti-vaccine policies somehow continue to grow more corrupt and dangerous,” Brad Woodhouse, president of Protect Our Care, said in a statement Thursday. “Now, Secretary Kennedy is trying to bribe doctors to claim, without evidence, that vaccines are harmful, and all he is doing is demanding higher premiums and a surge in waste, fraud, and abuse.”