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Vaccine safety: what systems are required to ensure public confidence in vaccines?

Allen C Cheng and Jim P Buttery
Med J Aust 2022; 217 (4): . || doi: 10.5694/mja2.51662
Published online: 15 August 2022

No single surveillance system is perfect, but integrating data from multiple sources can provide comprehensive and reliable signal detection

Although phase 3 pre‐licensing vaccine studies typically include tens of thousands of participants, they generally cannot detect rare adverse events following immunisation (AEFI). Further, participants in clinical trials are generally highly selected, and safety profiles may be different when programs are applied to broader populations. Robust systems for detecting AEFI (post‐marketing surveillance) are therefore essential when large scale vaccination programs are implemented.


  • 1 Monash University, Melbourne, VIC
  • 2 Surveillance of Adverse Events Following Vaccination In the Community (SAEFVIC), Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Melbourne, VIC


Correspondence: allen.cheng@monash.edu

Competing interests:

No relevant disclosures.

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