We might expect concerned parents to live by slogans like: "Love them, protect them, tell them about the dangers of smoking" or "Love them, protect them, make them wear their seatbelts" or "Love them, protect them, keep them away from guns." But love them, protect them, never get them vaccinated? Huh?
Wendy Callahan, a concerned mother from Hawthorne, FL, has purchased billboard space in Marion County, where she has erected a huge sign urging parents to "Love Them, Protect Them, Never Inject Them." The billboard, which Callahan hopes to leave up for an entire year, claims that vaccines can cause autism, chronic ear infections, and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Unfortunately, the mere suggestion of risk can have a very profound effect on people's choices. If the current media blitz continues, parents may be left with the impression that their children are safer if left unvaccinated, and this dangerous misinformation could lead to a resurgence of deadly pathogens which are currently kept at bay by immunization (see ACSH's booklet Vaccinations: What Parents Need to Know).
These predictions are not simply hypothetical. In 1974, Japan had completely eliminated deaths from pertussis (whooping cough), with only 393 cases reported that year for the entire country. However, as is happening today, rumors began to spread that the vaccine was unsafe, and within a few years the number of infants receiving the vaccine plummeted from 80% to 10%. In 1979, a major pertussis epidemic ensued, with 13,000 cases nationwide resulting in 113 deaths over the next three years. Realizing that they had made a mistake when they discontinued the vaccine, the Japanese Ministry of Health reinstituted it in 1981, and the number of cases dropped again.(1)
When public health officials say that vaccines are "safe," they do not mean that they are entirely risk-free. But as with any medical intervention, the benefits and risks must be weighed. For instance, the Hepatitis B (HBV) vaccine carries a risk of anaphylaxis (severe allergic reaction) of 1 in 600,000.(2) But compare this to the 1.2 million deaths per year worldwide that result from HBV infections, and it becomes clear that to forego an HBV vaccination would be unwise.(3) The same can be said of diphtheria, measles, and other diseases. In other words, vaccines do carry some small risk, but the benefits of receiving them (both for individual health and for population health) are orders of magnitude greater.
Recent concerns about the safety of vaccines seem to center on two perceived risks. The first and most widely discussed is thimerosal, a vaccine preservative. There is no sound evidence linking thimerosal to autism or any other disease. Even so, it has been eliminated from most childhood vaccines as a precaution, and the last remaining stocks of thimerosal-containing products were due to expire in 2003. A second concern that many parents have is that the bacterial or viral components themselves in the vaccines may make children sick, especially since so many vaccines are given together in the first few years of life. However, infants are exposed to tens of thousands of new bacteria and viruses after birth, so the amount contained in the eleven recommended vaccines is miniscule when put in perspective. In fact, the Vaccine Center of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia estimates that an infant would have to receive about 10,000 vaccines to overwhelm its immune system!(4)
Successful vaccination programs in the U.S. have all but eliminated diseases such as measles, polio, and Hib meningitis, which used to cause thousands of deaths and disabilities each year. Hopefully parents with concerns will go to their pediatricians for advice, because the proven benefits of vaccines are too numerous to place on one billboard.
1 http://www.cdc.gov/nip/publications/fs/gen/Why.htm
http://www.chop.edu/consumer/jsp/division/generic.jsp?id=75743
2 http://www.chop.edu/consumer/jsp/division/generic.jsp?id=75743
3 http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/471470_1
4 http://www.chop.edu/consumer/jsp/division/generic.jsp?id=75743
Mara Burney is a research associate at the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH.org, HealthFactsAndFears.com).