AF VAERS – An Independent Adverse Events Reporting System for Africa

Children’s Health Defense Africa announces the launch of the AF VAERS – African Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System.

AF VAERS is an independent reporting system intended to amplify the voices of African vaccine victims, enhance transparency and pharmacovigilance on vaccine adverse events, and strengthen accountability through access to justice and compensation initiatives.

According to an article in the British Pharmacological Society Journal, “the majority of LMIC (low to middle income countries) with national pharmacovigilance systems have weak regulatory enforcement and minimal pharmacovigilance awareness, resulting in very low reporting rates; few regulatory decisions on medicines safety are drawn from local data. Assessment of four east African countries in 2018 showed that only ~1% of health facilities had reported medicine-related harm in the previous year.”

CHD Africa executive director and chapter coordinator Shabnam Palesa Mohamed shared “Awareness of horrific vaccine harms caused to Africans, coupled with collecting data and hearing tragic stories of vaccine harms in South Africa, compelled me to realise how critical independent and transparent reporting is for the continent. AF VAERS does not replace official pharmacovigilance systems, but it serves to raise awareness on informed consent, health and socio-economic impact, the importance of product investigations, and access to justice.”

The article also states:

Low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) face unique challenges with regard to the establishment of robust pharmacovigilance systems capable of generating data to inform healthcare policy and practice. These include the limited integration and reliability of pharmacovigilance systems across LMIC despite recent efforts to harmonize pharmacovigilance rules and regulations in several regional economic communities. There are particular challenges relating to the need to translate reporting tools into numerous local languages and the low numbers of healthcare providers relative to number of patients, with very short consultation times.

Patients or consumers are often excluded from pharmacovigilance activities in LMIC, despite awareness of the value of their involvement. Since the early 2000s, it has been increasingly recognised that the patient is the primary stakeholder in pharmacovigilance, which has the ultimate aim of ensuring their safe use of medications. This recognition has led to a shift from the patient being a passive recipient to an active participant in their own healthcare.

A 2017 systematic review of 34 studies confirmed that patient reporting brings novel information particularly relating to severity and impact on daily living, hence complementing the information derived from healthcare providers. Thus, patient reporting will contribute to better decision-making processes in regulatory activities. The greatest challenge of COVID-19 vaccine safety monitoring will be faced by pharmacovigilance systems in LMIC, particularly in Africa, where weak or non-existent regulatory pharmacovigilance systems prevail.

 

Screengrab from V-Safe Page

AF VAERS launch timing is significant

The timing for the AF VAERS launch is especially significant. Reported by Epoch Times:

The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has halted the collection of COVID-19 vaccine adverse events reports through the agency’s V-Safe page, even after millions of Americans have reported such events. When visiting the V-Safe page, a message shows: “Thank you for your participation. Data collection for COVID-19 vaccines concluded on June 30, 2023. If you have symptoms or health problems following your COVID-19 vaccination that concern you, please contact your healthcare provider. You can also report to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).

The CDC states that since the launch of V-Safe in December 2020, it has registered 10.1 million participants who completed over 151 million health surveys regarding their experiences following the COVID-19 vaccination. According to V-Safe data accessed by the advocacy Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN) in September 2022, out of the 10.1 million users who reported on the platform, 3.53 million people claimed to have been adversely “impacted” by the vaccination.

While 1.2 million reported that they were “unable” to conduct normal activities, 1.3 million missed school/work, and 800,000 required medical care. In total, 6.45 million health impacts were reported to V-Safe. Out of a total 71.29 million reported symptoms, pain topped the list with 19 million reports, followed by fatigue at 11.7 million, headache at 9.1 million, and muscle/body aches at 7.2 million.

Over 751,000 individuals reported needing care after their COVID-19 vaccination. Among those aged 3 or older, 48.3 percent sought “urgent care” while 15 percent had to visit emergency rooms. Among individuals younger than 3 years old, these numbers were at 65.5 percent and 9.1 percent.

The visionary AF VAERS project will pilot in 15 countries including South Africa (which has a SA VAERS system), Kenya, Mozambique, Cameroon, Ghana, DRC, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Senegal, Uganda, Madagascar, Tanzania, Egypt and Botswana. Each country will have its own AF VAERS system. This will rapidly build up to reporting for all African countries.

CHD President and general counsel lawyer Mary Holland said “Kudos to CHD Africa for spearheading AF VAERS. These leaders are stepping in where governments have failed. There can be no “safe and effective” vaccines if there is no tracking of adverse events. This is a critical step in the right direction.”

African countries fulfilled an important role in rejecting most dystopian amendments to the International Health Regulations at the WHO’s World Health Assembly 75 last year. The countries, led by Botswana, opposed attempts that would impact on national sovereignty. CHD Africa allies, who will help raise awareness about AF VAERS, expressed happiness and relief that AF VAERS has been activated.

Kenyan doctor, Dr Wahome Ngare, who features in the compelling CHD film Infertility A Diabolical Agenda said “I want to thank and congratulate CHD Africa of the launch of the Africa VAERS. It could not have come at a better time. Our systems for collecting such data are either poor, ineffective, unknown or never popularised. Having robust real time data is godsend. It would our citizens and responsible government make informed choices, thus preventing medical tyranny.”

The AF VAERS project will launch online, and it will be highlighted in the CHD Africa’s Health Freedom Roadshow. The Roadshow will include the screening of health freedom films, and workshops on informed consent, vaccines, GMO, and electro-magnetic frequency risks.

CHD Africa welcomes your donations towards launching, growing and strengthening AF VAERS, and towards the Health Freedom Roadshow. Volunteers who would like to assist with African language translations of content are also welcome to connect with CHD Africa.