Vaccine adverse events and the TGA's role in monitoring them - is it failing the Australian public?
TGA Database of Adverse Event Notifications (DAEN) is where all suspected side effect reports following vaccination are collated in collaboration with state level databases like SAEFVIC in Victoria. It is commonly reported in the media by politicians, epidemiologists, CHOs etc that all adverse events post vaccination are monitored by the TGA. However, the reality is that the TGA depends on health practitioners and the general public to report them. I quote from the TGA website : " The TGA encourages health professionals and consumers to report suspected side effects following immunisation with COVID-19 vaccines. Every report is valuable and contributes to our safety monitoring." The TGA claims to collect data of adverse events presenting after the administration of any medication irrespective of causality being established. This is good practice and a requirement in any data set that is to be used for statistical inference purposes - to ascertain if there is an increas