Updated COVID-19 Vaccine Adverse Event Profiles from VAERS

Supplementary file 3 provides an updated analysis of adverse event (AE) profiles for COVID-19 vaccines using VAERS case reports through June 2024. The study profiles AEs for Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Janssen, bivalent, and Novavax vaccines, analyzing patterns by vaccine type, age, and sex. It employs Ontology of Adverse Events classification and statistical methods like Chi-square tests and proportional reporting ratios.

Use Cases

• Analyze sex-stratified AE patterns, comparing sensory-related AEs in females to cardiovascular-related AEs in males using ontology-based classification.
• Identify age-specific AE reporting trends, such as the bimodal pattern with higher rates in children aged 0–9 and adults aged 50–69.
• Compare AE profiles, including thrombosis, myocarditis, and Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), across monovalent and bivalent vaccine formulations.
• Examine the frequency and associations of death-related AEs, particularly among older males and monovalent vaccines.

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

• The dataset is a 26.9 KB supplementary file, indicating limited raw data scope and likely aggregated summary statistics.
• Underlying VAERS data is passive surveillance, subject to reporting biases and cannot establish causality.
• Specific row count, column structure, and sample data are unavailable, limiting detailed reproducibility.

Provenance

Source

Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), processed via Cov19VaxKB.

Collection Method

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

Time Range

Covers COVID-19 vaccine adverse events from 2020 through 28 June 2024.

Freshness

Data covers reports through 28 June 2024; file last updated March 2026.

Geography

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