[djinnandtonic]

VAERS is self-reported (and you can report for others) and not verified. We live in an age where a small segment of the population is highly motivated to cast doubt on vaccines.

Also, there has never in history been as quick and wide a rollout of a vaccine as COVID-19. If a database were tracking every negative outcome for a person after taking a vaccine - even if the vaccine didn't cause it - we would see a spike. You'd see a worrying spike in negative outcomes if we spun up a database that recorded adverse reactions after eating a banana, for example; doesn't mean bananas are killing people.