Perhaps I should have stipulated :
the long-term side-effects.
“Perhaps I should have stipulated: the long-term side-effects.”
Vaccines are routinely monitored for long term effects as well, including through the same VAERS.
The design of the trials for these COVID vaccines, was deliberately engineered to make them larger, rather than longer. Statistically, there is some such tradeoff that can be made, and still effectively detect longer term effects. The earliest recipients in the trials are now about a year in.
With over 113 million shots administered in the USA, and the majority of the population of Israel (under very controlled data collection conditions), we now have truly gargantuan sample sizes, to scan for adverse effects.
In addition to VAERS, the Emergency Use Authorizations for the COVID vaccines included multiple (three each) 30 month focused monitoring programs, specifically to look for longer term effects. These will be run by the Military Health Care System, the Veterans Affairs Health Care System (both of which have had these missions before, as part of their Public Health and Emergency missions), as well as a study by a group of large private Health Maintenance Organizations (notably Kaiser Permanente).
As with other vaccines which are approved or given special use authorizations, these will be monitored in perpetuity for long term effects (unless the governing laws are changed in the future).