Research Methods Question: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention maintain a database called the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). Doctors and nurses can file reports of patients who experienced various issues after a vaccine (e.g., fever, nausea, or other kinds of reactions that take place afterward), but so can any individual with internet access who notices something they perceive to be a concern, after receiving a vaccine. Additionally, anyone with internet access can conduct a search of the database to see what events have been reported for various vaccines. Recently, VAERS has been used as “proof” against vaccines, or even to argue that they are causing people to die. This is problematic for multiple reasons: A person conducting a search using the VAERS database can search for all cases that report a variety of adverse events that occur after a vaccine, including death. Recently, I had an interaction with an individual who informed me that their VAERS search for cases of death after the COVID vaccine produced over 17,000 search results. This person then concluded from this that the COVID vaccines cause death. Assess this claim in terms of the three criteria for causality, and explain why the claim can’t be supported.
Research Methods Question:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention maintain a database called the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). Doctors and nurses can file reports of patients who experienced various issues after a vaccine (e.g., fever, nausea, or other kinds of reactions that take place afterward), but so can any individual with internet access who notices something they perceive to be a concern, after receiving a vaccine. Additionally, anyone with internet access can conduct a search of the database to see what events have been reported for various vaccines. Recently, VAERS has been used as “proof” against vaccines, or even to argue that they are causing people to die. This is problematic for multiple reasons:
A person conducting a search using the VAERS database can search for all cases that report a variety of adverse events that occur after a vaccine, including death. Recently, I had an interaction with an individual who informed me that their VAERS search for cases of death after the COVID vaccine produced over 17,000 search results. This person then concluded from this that the COVID vaccines cause death. Assess this claim in terms of the three criteria for causality, and explain why the claim can’t be supported.
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