FAERS - Reported Deaths (Paxlovid)
Everyone has heard of VAERS by now but that just covers Vaccines.
However, there is also something called FAERS. Thats for Drugs. FAERS means FDA Adverse Event Reporting System.
The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) is a database that contains information on adverse event and medication error reports submitted to FDA. The database is designed to support the FDA's post-marketing safety surveillance program for drug and therapeutic biologic products. The informatic structure of the FAERS database adheres to the international safety reporting guidance issued by the International Conference on Harmonisation (ICH E2B). Adverse events and medication errors are coded to terms in the Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA) terminology.
https://open.fda.gov/data/faers/
Here is the link to the dashboard
https://fis.fda.gov/sense/app/95239e26-e0be-42d9-a960-9a5f7f1c25ee/sheet/7a47a261-d58b-4203-a8aa-6d3021737452/state/analysis
I used it yesterday but it was so clunky, at least on my old iphone I couldn’t really explore it properly. I am interested Paxlovid and so managed to pull this out as of June 30
Today I tried again but only got this. Maybe down for maintenance
Ok, so lets focus on deaths.
First of all, VAERS probably only reports 10% of all deaths. A Harvard study in 2010 showed only 1-10% events get reported. Probably at the higher end for the most serious events like death . But we know many hospitals actively discourage reporting and Doctors are hesitant for fear of being targeted.
So 72 deaths does not sound like much compared to the 14,000 domestic reports on VAERS for COVID vaccines. However, remember, over 500 million doses have been given of the Vaccine and Pfizer only planned to ship 10 million doses in US by June
And according to this only gave out 2.7 million courses through July 17.
Figures published by the Biden administration this week count more than 2.7 million twice daily, five day courses of Paxlovid, or "ritonavir-boosted nirmatrelvir," that have been taken by patients through July 17. The drugs themselves are purchased and distributed for free by the federal government.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/paxlovid-drug-covid-19-side-effects-how-to-get/
However, we dont know if those 72 deaths are US deaths or global. Most people for example don’t know VAERS includes Global events. You can filter it so you only see Domestic (US) events. Depending on if you do so or not you will get either 30K+ deaths or 14k+ deaths. I don’t know if FAERS is the same.
Since I don’t know the denominator (courses) if its Global, I will proceed with the assumption its Domestic (US).
Given there have been over 500 million vaccine doses given that means 200 x more doses of the vaccine have been given than courses of Paxlovid.
200 x 72 deaths = 14,400 if 500 million courses of Paxlovid were given. So about the same as reported vaccine deaths (~14K) per dose/course for Paxlovid
However, there is one big difference. Those who take Paxlovid have COVID and they are at higher risk of death. Its far less likely a death of someone taking Paxlovid gets reported as anything but a COVID death. I am frankly surprised to see so many reports (assuming these are US deaths).
Now, what if the FAERS number is Global. I dont have any way of knowing how many courses have been given globally. It doesnt seem to be going well though, maybe because the price is very high (550-700 USD)
But uptake in Europe and the rest of the world is lagging behind, with 10,000 courses of Paxlovid prescribed in Germany and 28,000 in Italy
https://www.ft.com/content/0eb0b444-c516-4abf-85a2-8cc9326cf84e
So assuming the 72 deaths of Paxlovid reported are Domestic and not Global shouldn’t affect things too much if wrong.
I wish I could dig deeper but its not looking good given my limited access to FAERS and the unknowns in the above calculations. Hopefully, someone else pursues this.