I think it's weird when people take this hyper confident, hyper dismissive black and white "thanks for asking!" stance on an extremely complex topic.
My spicy hot take: this shit is fantastically complicated. At the very least, I think it has to be acknowledged that accurate medical reporting at scale is apparently a Hard Problem and not at all as solved as we would like to think. I don't know how you're defining sources with a "credible tether to reality," but I'd point to the problem with establishing such things _as itself a problem_. VAERS is a perfect example of such a problem. Despite all the hubris in this thread acting like they've blown the case wide open, VAERS folks are well aware that their data is trash.
It is absolutely a hard problem. It is a hard problem being hit with the full weight of a fantastic amount of money and intellect to get it right the first time.
When the contrary position is not generally the position of either genuine goddamned loons or the much more unfortunate case of people given historically very valid reasons for hesitancy that in this case no show sign of being true, there might be a reason to re-evaluate that stance.
My spicy hot take: this shit is fantastically complicated. At the very least, I think it has to be acknowledged that accurate medical reporting at scale is apparently a Hard Problem and not at all as solved as we would like to think. I don't know how you're defining sources with a "credible tether to reality," but I'd point to the problem with establishing such things _as itself a problem_. VAERS is a perfect example of such a problem. Despite all the hubris in this thread acting like they've blown the case wide open, VAERS folks are well aware that their data is trash.