#9 Keeping vaccines safe – Helena Sköld & Annette Rudolph

With COVID-19 vaccinations rolling at full speed in many
countries, there’s a lot of talk about vaccine safety monitoring.
But what exactly does that mean and how should we be interpreting
data on side effects? Uppsala Monitoring Centre’s Helena Sköld
and Annette Rudolph walk us through the basics of vaccine
pharmacovigilance.

Tune in to find out:


How suspected side effects are reported and studied around
the world

Why a mere list of reported side effects says little about a
vaccine’s safety profile

How a global database like VigiBase can help spot unexpected
safety issues



Want to know more?
Media coverage can greatly affect the rate at which
side effects of medicines and vaccines are reported, as shown by
this study by the New Zealand Centre for Adverse Reactions
Monitoring.

When talking about side effects of any medicine or vaccine, it’s
important not to confuse reporting rates with incidence.

In its COVID-19 vaccine safety surveillance manual, the World
Health Organization (WHO) outlines how countries should prepare
for the introduction of COVID-19 vaccines.

Uppsala Monitoring Centre (UMC) has developed guidelines for
carrying out pharmacovigilance work during the COVID-19 pandemic
and a list of frequently asked questions on suspected side
effects of COVID-19 vaccines.

Among other things, UMC has been supporting members of the WHO
Programme for International Drug Monitoring in their vaccine
safety surveillance efforts by improving the VigiLyze and
VigiFlow tools.





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About UMCRead more about Uppsala Monitoring Centre
and how we work to advance medicines safety.