Updated COVID-19 Vaccine Adverse Event Profiles from VAERS

Anna He's supplementary analysis provides an updated profiling of adverse events associated with Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Janssen, bivalent, and Novavax COVID-19 vaccines using VAERS data through June 2024. The study employs statistical tests and Ontology of Adverse Events classification to characterize AE patterns, including age- and sex-stratified analyses.

Use Cases

• Compare adverse event profiles, such as thrombosis and myocarditis, across monovalent and bivalent vaccine types using statistical significance metrics.
• Analyze age-stratified patterns to identify bimodal reporting trends in children aged 0–9 and adults aged 50–69.
• Investigate sex differences where females report more sensory-related AEs and males report more cardiovascular-related AEs via ontology-based classification.
• Examine the frequency of death-related adverse events associated primarily with monovalent formulations among older males.

Strengths

• Analysis includes data through 28 June 2024, providing updated safety trends.
• Profiles adverse events for five distinct vaccine types, including newer bivalent and protein subunit formulations.
• Employs multiple analytical methods: Pearson’s Chi-square test, proportional reporting ratios, and Ontology of Adverse Events classification.

Limitations

• Dataset scope is limited to a 596.3 KB supplementary file, indicating aggregated summary results rather than raw case-level data.
• Row and column counts are unknown, preventing assessment of data volume or feature granularity.
• Relies on VAERS, a passive surveillance system subject to reporting biases and under-reporting.

Provenance

Source

Processed VAERS data obtained via Cov19VaxKB.

Collection Method

Systematic analysis of VAERS case reports using statistical tests and ontology-guided classification.

Time Range

Covers VAERS data through 28 June 2024, with study period referenced as 2020–2024.

Freshness

Last updated March 2026, though underlying VAERS data current through June 2024.

Geography

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