False: 2,809 babies died when their mothers were vaccinated against COVID-19 during their pregnancy.

By: Devika Kandelwal
January 19 2022

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VAERS data has been misused to claim that COVID-19 vaccines are dangerous for pregnant women.A Facebook post shared on January 7 on a group called "New World Order Researchers United U.K." shows a video of someone called Dr. Peterson Pierre. In this video, Pierre claims, among other things, that 2,809 babies died when their mothers were vaccinated against COVID-19 during their pregnancy. He cites VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System) as his source and claims that this data is proof that COVID-19 vaccines are not safe for pregnant women and that federal public health authorities knew this but chose to hide this from people. Pierre's claim is not true; he misinterprets the data in this video. As Logically has previously explained, VAERS is a self-reporting platform and a "passive reporting system," meaning that it is up to the individual to report their post-vaccination experiences. Anyone can report an adverse event to VAERS. Healthcare professionals must report certain adverse events, and vaccine manufacturers must report all adverse events that come to their attention. However, it is essential to remember that "VAERS is not designed to determine if a vaccine caused a health problem." It is simply a self-reporting tool, which helps the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) detect "unusual or unexpected patterns of adverse event reporting that might indicate a possible safety problem with a vaccine." The website encourages people to report any adverse event after administering a vaccine licensed in the U.S., whether it is or is not clear that the vaccine caused the adverse event. Investigations are only conducted on reports related to what the CDC considers a safety signal, i.e., "unusual or unexpected patterns of adverse events," but updated or corrected data is not available to the public. VAERS accumulates this raw data and makes it available for anyone to download from their website. Since the data is raw and has not been assessed, VAERS' website categorically states, "The reports may contain information that is incomplete, inaccurate, coincidental, or unverifiable. In large part, reports to VAERS are voluntary, which means they are subject to biases. This creates specific limitations on how the data can be used scientifically. Data from VAERS reports should always be interpreted with these limitations in mind." Furthermore, the CDC and doctors who focus on maternal health and pediatrics recommend that pregnant women receive the vaccine. As the U.K.'s Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists states, "Vaccination is the best way to protect against the known risks of COVID-19 in pregnancy for both women and babies, including admission of the woman to intensive care and premature birth of the baby." According to Johns Hopkins, the CDC released data in September 2021, "showing the highest number of COVID-19-related deaths in pregnant people in a single month was in August 2021. Data also indicate that 97% of pregnant people hospitalized, either for illness or labor and delivery, with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection were unvaccinated." It further noted that over 200,000 pregnant women had received an mRNA vaccine (Pfizer or Moderna) without any safety concerns. The U.K. government website also notes, "Data from the UK Obstetric Surveillance System shows 96.3% of pregnant women admitted to hospital with COVID-19 symptoms between May and October 2021 were unvaccinated, a third of which (33%) requiring respiratory support. Around 1 in 5 women who are hospitalised with the virus need to be delivered preterm to help them recover and 1 in 5 of their babies need care in the neonatal unit." All leading medical organizations have concluded that the benefits of COVID-19 vaccination outweigh the risks of vaccination for pregnant women. The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to a lot of potentially dangerous misinformation. For reliable advice on COVID-19, including symptoms, prevention, and available treatment, please refer to the World Health Organization or your national healthcare authority.