Click on the following myths to get the facts on vaccines:
For more information about vaccines visit our Vaccine Safety page.
MYTH: “Vaccines cause many harmful side effects, illnesses and even death - not to mention possible long-term effects we don’t even know about.”
FACT: Vaccines are actually very safe. Most vaccine adverse events are minor and temporary, such as a sore arm or mild fever. More serious adverse events occur rarely (on the order of one per thousands to one per millions of doses), and some are so rare that risk cannot be accurately assessed. Like any medicine, there may be minor side effects. Depending on the vaccine, these can include: slight fever, rash or soreness at the site of injection. Slight discomfort is normal and should not be cause for alarm.
If vaccines cause side effects, wouldn’t it be “safer” to just avoid them? Unfortunately, choosing to avoid vaccines is not a risk-free choice - it is a choice to take a different and much more serious risk. Discontinuing the pertussis vaccine in countries like Japan and England led to a tenfold increase in hospitalizations and deaths from pertussis. When you consider the risk of vaccines and the risk of diseases, vaccines are the safer choice.
If you think your child is experiencing a persistent or severe reaction to a vaccine, call your doctor or get the child to the doctor right away. Write down what happened and the date and time it happened. Ask your doctor, nurse, or health department to file a Vaccine Adverse Event Report form or go to www.vaers.hhs.gov to do it yourself.
MYTH: “Vaccines don’t work.”
FACT: A dramatic reduction in the incidence of diseases such as measles, mumps, German measles, polio, diphtheria, tetanus, Hib and pertussis occurred within several years of the introduction of vaccines against them. Vaccines not only work, but they work phenomenally well.”
MYTH: “The majority of people who get diseases have been vaccinated.”
FACT: No vaccine is 100% effective. Most childhood vaccines are effective for 85% to 95% of recipients. For reasons related to the individual, some people will not develop immunity.
MYTH: “Vaccines are not safe.”
FACT: What does the word ‘safe’ mean? The first definition of the word ‘safe’ is “harmless.” This definition would imply that any negative consequences of vaccines would make the vaccine unsafe. Using this definition, no vaccine is 100 percent safe. Almost all vaccines can cause pain, redness, or tenderness at the site of injection. The second definition of the word ‘safe’ is “having been preserved from a real danger.” This definition implies that vaccines provide safety. Using this definition, the danger (the disease) must be significantly greater than the means of protecting against the danger (the vaccine). Or, said another way, a vaccine’s benefits must clearly and definitively outweigh its risks.
Because vaccines are given to people who are not sick, they are held to the highest standards of safety. As a result, they are among the safest things we put into our bodies.
MYTH: “Infants are too young to get vaccinated.”
FACT: Children are immunized in the first few months of life because several vaccine-preventable diseases infect them when they are very young. Fortunately, young infants are surprisingly good at building immunity to viruses and bacteria. About 95 percent of children given DTaP, Hib, and hepatitis B virus vaccines will be fully protected by two years of age.
MYTH: “Children get too many shots.”
FACT: Infants and young children commonly encounter and manage many challenges to their immune system at the same time. But vaccines are just a small part of what babies encounter every day. Although the mother’s womb is free from bacteria and viruses, newborns immediately face a host of different challenges to their immune system. The 11 or 12 vaccines that children receive in the first two years of life are just a drop in the ocean when compared to the tens of thousands of environmental challenges that babies successfully manage every day.
MYTH: “Vaccines contain harmful additives.”
FACT: Some parents are concerned that thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative contained in the influenza vaccine, causes autism - a brain development disorder that impairs social interaction and communication. During the past few years, a series of biological and epidemiological studies have shown this concern to be unfounded, and it has never been demonstrated that mercury at the level contained in vaccines causes neurological problems. A recent study conducted by researchers from the California State Department of Public Health found that the autism rate in children rose continuously during the 12-year study period from 1995 to 2007 despite the removal of thimerosal from routine childhood shots. This latest study adds to existing evidence refuting a link between thimerosal exposure and autism risk and should reassure you that autism is not caused by vaccinations.
Today, with the exception of some flu vaccines, none of the vaccines used in the U.S. to protect children against 12 infectious diseases contain thimerosal. Thimerosal was originally added to vaccines to protect them from bacterial contamination. While mercury can have toxic effects in large amounts, there is no evidence that the very small amounts of thimerosal found in vaccines has ever caused problems for children. In fact, an infant who is exclusively breastfed will ingest 15 times the quantity of mercury contained in the influenza vaccine.
For more information on reported vaccine-preventable diseases in Colorado, click on the state flag.
