Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System
Report a health problem after a vaccination
Anyone can report — a patient, a parent or caregiver, or a healthcare professional. You do not need to be certain the vaccine caused the problem. Reporting a possibility is exactly what this system is for.
What you will be asked
- Who the report is about, and their date of birth.
- Which vaccine or vaccines were given, and when.
- What happened, in your own words.
- How the person is now, and what care they needed.
- Anything you would like to attach — this is optional.
Where would you like to go?
Every part of VAERS is reachable from this page in one click.
After you submit
What happens to your report
Reports are reviewed by CDC and FDA, who co-manage VAERS. A single report does not establish that a vaccine caused a problem; patterns across many reports are what safety scientists look for.
You get a VAERS ID
Shown on screen the moment you submit, and used for anything you send in later.
The report is coded
Symptoms are mapped to standard medical terms so reports can be compared to one another.
Serious reports are followed up
Reports of serious outcomes may prompt a request for medical records, which is why the document upload matters.
The data becomes public
De-identified data is published for anyone to download and analyse.
How this application works
Built around why reports go unfinished
The barrier to a complete VAERS report is rarely willingness. It is being asked clinical questions you cannot answer, and being stopped by a form that will not accept an honest “I don’t know.”
The form adapts to who you are
A parent and a pharmacist are not asked the same questions. Fields that do not apply to your report are removed from it, not greyed out.
Validation that helps rather than blocks
When two answers disagree, the form explains what it noticed and offers the fix. It almost never refuses to move on.
Operable by keyboard and screen reader
Every control has a name, every error is announced, and no interaction depends on a mouse, colour, or a steady hand.
Documents attach in the form
Medical records go in while you are reporting, and can still be sent afterwards using your VAERS ID.
CDC staff change the wording, not the code
Every question, hint and help article on this site is content that a CDC content owner edits and publishes without a release.
Personal information is protected
Patient identity is kept confidential. Uploads are restricted to documents relevant to the vaccination or the event reported.
Start a report
Who is filling in this report?
This is the only thing we need before we start. It decides which questions you are asked — and, just as importantly, which ones you are not.
Report a vaccine adverse event
Step 1 of 5
Who is this report about?
Tell us who had the reaction. If that is you, choose the first option — the questions will be worded as though you are describing yourself.
How can we reach you?
Only used if CDC needs to ask a question about this report. Every field here is optional — a report without contact details is still accepted and reviewed.
Step 2 of 5
Which vaccine, and when?
If more than one vaccine was given the same day, add each of them. Reviewers need to know everything given that day, even the ones you do not suspect.
Start typing the everyday name — “flu shot”, “COVID”, “shingles”. We will match it to the clinical name for you.
Where was it given?
This helps CDC follow up with the right kind of facility.
Step 3 of 5
What happened?
This is the most important part of the report. Write it the way you would tell a doctor — what you noticed, when, and what was done about it.
Include what you noticed, when it started, whether anyone was treated, and how it turned out. There is no length limit and no wrong way to say it.
Step 4 of 5
How are they now?
Two questions about the outcome, then anything you would like to attach.
Anything you would like to send us?
Optional. A photo of the vaccination card, a discharge letter or a visit summary all help reviewers. You can also send documents later using your VAERS ID.
Other medicines being taken, allergies, illnesses at the time, or anything that did not fit above.
Step 1
What kind of report is this?
This answer changes the rest of the form. Choosing an administration error with no adverse event removes the adverse-event items from the workflow and from the record that reaches VAERS — you will not be asked to describe symptoms that did not occur.
Reporter details
VAERS item 13. Prefilled for a healthcare professional; change it if someone else is completing the form.
Patient information
VAERS items 1 to 12. Patient identity is kept confidential and is used only for follow-up and de-duplication.
Computed from items 2 and 4. Override it if the record says otherwise.
Clinical context
VAERS items 9 to 12. These frame the report for reviewers and are where confounders usually surface.
Prescriptions, over-the-counter products, supplements, herbal remedies.
Medications, food or other products.
Facility where the vaccine was given
VAERS items 15 and 16. Facility type drives which follow-up route CDC uses if medical records are requested.
Military and registry items
VAERS items 26 to 28. Leave blank where they do not apply.
Vaccines given
VAERS item 17. List every vaccine given on the date in item 4, including ones not suspected. Route is how the vaccine was given; body site is where.
Item 17 — vaccines given on the vaccination date
EssentialLot number, route, site and dose in series are the four fields most often missing from provider reports, and the four a manufacturer follow-up depends on.
Vaccine, date and any reaction. Free text is fine.
If yes, describe the event, the patient’s age at that vaccination, the dates, and the vaccine type and brand.
The adverse event
VAERS items 5, 18, 19, 20 and 21 — the clinical core of the report and the part reviewers read first.
Signs, symptoms, time course, treatment given and the clinical outcome.
Include dates. Attach the reports themselves at the documents step.
The administration error
This block replaces the adverse-event items when no adverse event occurred. It captures what went wrong, what was done about it, and whether the patient was told.
What was intended, what was actually given, how it was discovered, and when.
Clinical follow-up, revaccination plan, storage or process change, incident report filed.
Supporting documents
Medical records attached now travel with the report. Anything that becomes available later can still be sent against the VAERS ID.
Suggested documents for this report
Built from what has been entered so far — the outcomes selected, the tests recorded, and the type of report. Suggestions are advice, not requirements.
Attach documents
Medical records and vaccine documents relating to the vaccination or the event reported. Each file is labelled so reviewers know what they are opening.
Anything not captured by an item above.
Check your report before you send it
Everything below is what CDC will receive. Change anything that is not right — nothing is final until you press send.
The record that will be transmitted
VAERS-compatibleField names and value sets follow the current VAERS form. Items that do not apply to this report are absent from the record with the reason recorded beside them, rather than transmitted empty.
Your report has been received
Thank you. Reports like yours are how safety signals are found. Keep the number below — you will need it to send anything else in.
Send documents later
Medical records that arrive after today can be attached to this report at any time using the VAERS ID above. Nothing needs to be re-entered.
Keep a copy
Print or save this page for your records. It contains the VAERS ID and a summary of everything that was submitted.
What happens next
- Your report is entered into VAERS and the symptoms you described are coded to standard medical terms.
- If you reported a serious outcome, CDC or FDA may write to request medical records. That request will reference the VAERS ID above.
- A de-identified version of the report becomes part of the public VAERS data set, which anyone can download.
Your submitted report
A read-only copy of what was sent.
Help centre
How can we help?
Answers filter as you type. If nothing matches, the last card tells you exactly who to contact.
Data & downloads
VAERS public data
De-identified VAERS reports are published for anyone to download and analyse. Each year is distributed as three CSV files, packaged together in one ZIP.
What is in each file
Three tables joined on VAERS_ID. One row per
report in the first, one row per vaccine in the second, one row per coded symptom in the third.
VAERSDATA.csv
The report itself — age, sex, state, onset date, narrative, outcome flags and recovery status. One row per VAERS ID.
VAERSVAX.csv
The vaccines. Columns include VAX_TYPE, VAX_MANU, VAX_LOT,
VAX_DOSE_SERIES, VAX_ROUTE, VAX_SITE and VAX_NAME.
VAERSSYMPTOMS.csv
The coded symptom terms assigned to each report, with the coding dictionary version used.
Data sets by year
| Data set | Package | Files contained | Get it |
|---|
Requesting non-public data
Fields that could identify a person are removed from the public files. Researchers who need identifiable data submit a written request describing the study, the fields required and the protections in place. The request route and the review timeline are described in the help centre.
About
About VAERS
A national early warning system for monitoring the safety of U.S.-licensed vaccines, co-managed by CDC and FDA.
What VAERS is for
VAERS collects reports of health problems that occur after vaccination. Its job is to detect unusual or unexpected patterns early — a signal that something warrants a closer look. It is deliberately open: anyone may file a report, no proof is required, and reports are accepted whether or not the vaccine is thought to be the cause.
That openness is the system’s strength and the source of its most common misreading. Because reports are not verified before they are published, and because anyone can submit one, the presence of a report does not establish that a vaccine caused anything. Patterns across many reports, examined against background rates, are what safety scientists work from.
Who reports
Patients, parents, guardians and caregivers file reports directly. So do healthcare professionals and vaccine manufacturers. Under the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act, healthcare providers are required to report certain events — including any event listed in the VAERS Table of Reportable Events following vaccination, and any event listed as a contraindication in the manufacturer’s package insert.
What a good report contains
The VAERS form marks eight items as essential: date of birth, sex, date of vaccination, date the event started, age at vaccination, the vaccines given, a description of what happened, and the outcome. A report missing some of these is still accepted and still reviewed — but those eight are what make a report usable for comparison against others.
What VAERS cannot do
- It cannot determine whether a vaccine caused an event. It can only flag a pattern worth investigating.
- It cannot produce a rate. The number of people vaccinated is not part of the reporting data, and an unknown share of events are never reported at all.
- It is not a route to clinical care. Anyone who needs medical attention should seek it directly.
Accessibility
Accessibility of this application
Built to conform to Section 508 and WCAG 2.1 Level AA. This page states what that means in practice, how it was tested, and what to do if something still does not work.
Everything works from the keyboard
Every control is reachable by Tab in a logical order, operable by Enter or Space, and shows a visible focus ring. Esc closes any panel that opens over the page, and focus returns to the control that opened it.
Readable without perfect vision
Text meets or exceeds the 4.5:1 contrast minimum against its background. Nothing is conveyed by colour alone — every state carries an icon and a word. The layout reflows to a single column without horizontal scrolling.
Announced to screen readers
Form controls have programmatic labels, groups use fieldset and legend,
errors are linked to their field with aria-describedby, and step changes and
validation messages are announced through a live region.
No time pressure
There is no session timer that discards your answers. Work in progress is held on your own device and is still there when you come back.
Dates you can actually type
Dates are entered as separate month, day and year fields rather than a single masked control or a calendar widget — the pattern that tests best with screen readers, magnification and voice input.
Motion respects your settings
If your device is set to reduce motion, transitions are suppressed. Nothing moves, flashes or auto-advances without you asking for it.
Keyboard reference
| Key | Effect |
|---|---|
| Tab / Shift+Tab | Move forward or back through every control on the page. |
| Enter | Activate a button or link. In a text field, it does not submit the report. |
| Space | Toggle a checkbox, select a radio option, activate a button. |
| ← → ↑ ↓ | Move between options in a radio group. |
| Esc | Close the help panel, a tooltip, the walkthrough or any dialog, returning focus where it was. |
If something does not work
Tell us what you were trying to do, what happened, and what you were using — browser, screen reader, magnification, voice control. A barrier that stops someone completing a report is treated as a defect in the application, not as a limitation of the person using it.
Program administration
CDC Content Studio
Where authorized CDC program personnel change what the application says and which fields it asks for — without a developer, a release, or a change to the code.
Changes you publish here take effect on the live form immediately. Every change is recorded in the audit log with the previous value.
Wording
Every question, hint and heading the application shows. Edit a value and it changes on the live form when you publish.
| Where it appears | Text shown to the reporter |
|---|
Form fields
Whether a field is asked for, and how strongly. The eight items CDC treats as essential on the VAERS form cannot be hidden.
| Field | VAERS item | Public path | Provider path |
|---|
Vaccine list
The list reporters search. The everyday name is what the public path shows; the clinical name is what the record carries.
| Everyday name | Clinical name | VAX_TYPE | Remove |
|---|
Help centre
Questions and answers shown in the help centre and in the in-form help panel.
Surveys
Two instruments: one on site navigation, available from every page, and one shown after a report is submitted.
Publish changes
Review what will change, then publish. Publishing applies to the live form at once and writes an entry to the audit log.
Audit log
Every published change, with what it was before, what it became, who changed it and when.
| When | What changed | Before | After | By |
|---|
Roles and permissions
Who can do what. Roles are assigned in CDC’s identity system; this screen shows what each one grants here.
| Capability | Content Editor | Program Owner | Developer |
|---|
RFQ 75D301-26-Q-00146 · Tab 2-2
Where each requirement is demonstrated
Every row names a Performance Work Statement item, what it requires, and the screen in this application where it can be observed. Each button opens that screen.
The six areas Tab 2-2 is evaluated against
Stated in the solicitation. What an evaluator can observe for each, in this application.
| Evaluation area | What can be observed here |
|---|
Performance Work Statement coverage
| PWS | Requirement | Demonstrated by | Open |
|---|
Items whose demonstration is a document, a security control or an activity performed inside CDC’s environment are marked as such rather than claimed here.