Are vaccines dangerous?
Across the world, vaccines have been overwhelmingly effective at reducing disease.
Globally, and because of vaccines, cases of measles have declined, polio has almost been eradicated and major infections like smallpox and rinderpest have been eradicated.
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MMR and MMRV vaccines are associated with a small, increased risk of seizures.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study shows MMR(V) vaccines slightly increase risk of benign seizures in children aged between 6 months and 5 years.
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Vaccines can fail—and lead to outbreaks.
The mumps vaccine is only approximately 85% effective. In 2014, a community in Ohio had an outbreak of hundreds of cases of mumps virus, many of which cases involved university students who had previously been vaccinated against mumps.
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Vaccines don't cause autism. The research paper that said so (and sparked an international crisis of trust in vaccines) was fraudulent.
The hypothesis of British doctor Andrew Wakefield's 1998 study (which suggested a causal link between the MMR vaccine and autism) was not, and has never been, proven. Wakefield was, however, funded by companies that stood to profit from generating anxiety around the MMR vaccine.
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Vaccine hesitancy is one of the top ten greatest risks to global health.
Many countries that were recently on the brink of eradicating certain diseases are now seeing those diseases rise again due to vaccine hesitancy. Vaccine hesitancy is among the World Health Organisation's top ten threats to global health.
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Natural infection can lead to better immunity than vaccines.
Building your immunity to certain diseases naturally (by getting them) can increase the probability you won't get them again over taking vaccines. This is because the dose of the virus or bacteria is larger and your exposure is longer.
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The benefits of vaccines far outweigh the risks.
World Health Organisation reports that the benefits of the MMR vaccine, which is often the object of parental concern, far outweigh the risk of possible side effects.
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Over the last 20 years, cases of measles in Europe have grown concurrently with the rise of anti-vaccine movements.
Using WHO data, The Guardian reported that measeles is at a 20-year high as a result of anti-vaccine movements in Europe. In 2018, there were twice as many deaths (72) from measles as there were in 2017.
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The largest, permanent drop in cases of measles began in 1963, coinciding with large-scale use of measles vaccine.
World Health Organisation connects dramatic decline in cases of measles in the 1960s with the licensing and use of measles vaccine.
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Historically, the halting of the use of vaccines has resulted in death.
Over the course of the 1970s and 1980s, three countries (UK, Sweden and Japan) cut back on the pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine due to fears over its safety. In each country, the result was a dramatic increase in cases of and deaths from pertussis.
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Links have been established between certain vaccines and death from anaphylaxis.
Study by National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) establishes a causal relation between various vaccines (DT, Td, tetanus toxoid and MMR) and anaphylaxis, some cases of which have resulted in death.
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You can still get certain diseases even after you've been vaccinated.
Though the measles vaccine is 99.99% effective, on rare occasions measles can overcome an individual’s immunity and give them the (potentially dangerous) disease. In 2011, a woman in New York caught measles even though she’d had the vaccine.
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Successful immunisation does not just come down to vaccines themselves—the host's health is often where the danger lies.
Genetics, immune status, age, health and nutritional status are all crucial factors in the effectiveness of vaccines. For example, poor health can limit your body’s ability to make antibodies, therefore decreasing the probability of immunisation.
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Not vaccinating your child creates a risk of disease not only for them, but also for every other child they come into contact with.
Children who are not vaccinated can become carriers who spread diseases which could potentially kill less healthy children.
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In 2018, over 49,000 adverse events were reported following vaccination in the USA.
Myriad types of adverse events and side effects following the taking of (all types of) vaccines by (all ages of) people were reported in the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS), including several deaths.
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Vaccines cannot cause the diseases they are supposed to make you immune from.
Though they have live viruses in them, most vaccines contain just a small amount of inactive toxins or stripped down micro-organisms. Even those vaccines with whole germs in them have negligible potency.
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As with any medical process, vaccination is subject to base-level risks.
Many cases that seem to show a causal link between vaccines and death contain numerous other possible causes. These include inappropriate handling, contamination and errors in quality control.
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To your immune system, where a virus or bacteria comes from—whether infection or vaccine—is irrelevant.
Regardless of whether it's encountering natural infection or vaccine, the immune system has the same response: detect, defeat and remember. Given natural infection is a high-risk approach and vaccination low-risk, vaccination makes for a much safer means to an end.
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Some vaccines build better immunity than natural infection.
HPV vaccine has a higher purity protein which results in a better immune response; Tetanus's toxin is so potent that a lower dosage (in vaccine) actually leads to longer-lasting immunity; Hib and Pneumococcal vaccines bind aspects of target microbes to create better immunity.
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Influenza vaccine is associated with an increased risk of respiratory virus infections.
After showing there is some association between influenza vaccine and increased risk of respiratory viruses, this study suggests the influenza vaccine could cause a biological mechanism that reduces immunity to noninfluena viruses.