Vaccine Facts

Vaccines prevent a lot of disease in kids. The health authorities strongly recommend following the official vaccine schedule. The US schools enforce vaccine requirements. The overwhelming majority of kids (up to 99%) get the recommended vaccines.

Vaccines also have adverse effects, and it is difficult to balance the risks. Some people avoid vaccines out of unproven suspicions about auto-immune diseases, or because they believe that their disease risk is low, or for other reasons.

Here are a few facts that might cause some concerns.

• The federal (FDA and CDC) vaccine advisory committees are dominated by people with financial ties to the vaccine industry. June 2000 US Congress staff report.
• Many vaccines had mercury in them, until someone discovered in 1999 that the mercury was in excess of federal guidelines for cumulative human exposure. CDC report (The FDA now says that the routinely recommended pediatric vaccines have only trace amounts of thimerosal, at most.)
• Kids are scheduled for 20 vaccine shots in the first two years of life. Some shots contain as many as three vaccines. AAP list
• Polio was eradicated from the Western Hemisphere ten years ago. The only people getting polio were getting it from the oral polio vaccine, which was still being recommended in 1999. Nature
• Measles has been eradicated from the indigenous US population since 1998. CDC report
• The rubella vaccine was made from aborted human fetuses. article
• The only licensed live chickenpox vaccine used in the United States was developed, in part, from cells derived from research involving human embryos. [Pres. G. W. Bush, 12-Aug-2001]
• Reducing chickenpox among children could increase suffering from shingles among adults. JAMA
• Over $1.3 billion has been paid in compensation to vaccine victims. National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP)
• A rotarvirus (diarrhea) vaccine was recommended for all babies, and then pulled off the market in 1999 because it caused a life-threatening bowel obstruction. CDC report
• The vaccine against Lyme disease was withdrawn from the market because of concern that it causes severe cases of arthritis and even Lyme disease itself. NY Times, Science section, November 21, 2000
• Hepatitis B (HBV) vaccination is done at birth for reasons that are more social than medical. JAMA
• Vaccines are sometimes put on the schedule just to get federal funding. JAMA editorial
• Millions of Americans got the potentially cancer-causing monkey virus SV40 from contaminated polio vaccines. CDC report
• Vaccines are still not studied adequately for long-term effects. UK Guardian story