Tucker Carlson Misrepresents Vaccine Safety Reporting Data SciCheck Digest The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System accepts any reports of adverse side effects following vaccination to help regulators detect potential problems. Anyone can submit a report, whether or not the incident is vaccine-related. Fox News host Tucker Carlson misrepresented the VAERS data to suggest that thousands have died from COVID-19 vaccines. How safe are the vaccines? No serious safety concerns were found in the clinical trials of the vaccines that have been authorized for use in the United States. On April 13, the CDC and Food and Drug Administration recommended “a pause in the use” of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The agencies lifted the pause on April 23, shortly after the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted 10-4 to resume the vaccine’s use with a warning about a rare, severe type of blood clot and low blood platelets that mostly occurred in women aged 18 to 49 years old. At its April 23 meeting, the ACIP reported that, as of April 21, there were 15 cases of the rare clotting condition combined with low levels of platelets among women, including three deaths, out of nearly 8 million vaccinations.