medical

Vaccine Myths

Over recent months I’ve read several articles setting out to refute anti-vaxxer myths about vaccines, including:

Read these articles for further background and references.

Now I’m not going to recite all the arguments busting the myths, but I will highlight a few salient points.

Autism

  • The original paper by Andrew Wakefield on autism being caused by the MMR vaccine has been totally discredited due to serious procedural errors, undisclosed financial conflicts of interest, and ethical violations. The paper has been retracted.
  • Numerous studies have been conducted and none have found any evidence to support the notion that vaccines cause autism or other chronic illnesses.

Improved hygiene

  • While it is true that better hygiene, sanitation and nutrition are responsible for there being fewer infections, this is not the whole story. Antibiotics and similar drugs have clearly helped too.
  • However when these factors are isolated and rates of infectious disease are scrutinized, vaccines are also shown to have had a significant effect.

Vaccines are too risky

  • Children and adults have been being successfully vaccinated for decades.
  • This has provided ample opportunity for research studies and none has never found a single credible link between vaccines and long term health conditions.

Vaccination is not needed

  • This argument goes that we don’t need to vaccinate because infection rates are already incredibly low.
  • Yes, infection rates are low and this can be shown to be due toi the herd immunity from vaccination: with many people resisting infection due to vaccination even unvaccinated groups are provided some protection as diseases cannot get a foothold.
  • This level of “herd immunity” is important because there will always be a portion of the population – infants, pregnant women, elderly, those with weakened immune systems – that can’t be vaccinated.
  • Reduce that level of “herd immunity” and the infections do return.


Mercury in vaccines acts as a neurotoxin

  • Yes, some vaccines have contained the preservative thimerosal, which is a compound containing mercury. And yes, free mercury is a neurotoxin. But thimerosal does not produce free mercury in the body.
  • However both the USA’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization, have found no evidence that thimerosal in vaccines causes health problems in kids.
  • In fact in 2001 thimerosal was removed from all childhood vaccines in the United States except multi-dose vials of flu vaccine. It has also been removed in vaccines in the EU. As a result there was no drop in the incidence of autism; in fact the opposite. The same was found in Denmark.

Vaccine overload

  • “Vaccine overload” is the idea that giving many vaccines at once may overwhelm or weaken a child’s immature immune system and lead to adverse effects.
  • However there is strong scientific evidence to the contrary.
  • Despite the relatively recent increase in the number of vaccines, improvements in vaccine design have reduced the immunologic load from vaccines.
  • Moreover vaccines pose a very small immunologic load compared to the pathogens naturally encountered by a child in a typical year.

HPV vaccine

  • In some quarters the HPV vaccine, which is offered to pre- and early-teenage girls (and increasingly to boys) is controversial due to concerns that it may encourage promiscuity.
  • Even if this were the case (and I have seen no evidence) my personal view is that this would be preferable to cervical, throat and other cancers.
  • It is also quite baffling that anyone can oppose a vaccine which aims to reduce the incidence of cancer.

Flu Vaccination

  • It is a common misconception that you don’t need a ‘flu shot every year.
  • This is wrong. If you are eligible for a ‘flu shot you do need one every year.
  • Not only is ‘flu a highly dangerous disease, especially for the immunocompromised, but it mutates very rapidly. In consequence this year’s circulating ‘flu viruses will be very different to last year’s, and the vaccine is updated every year to take account of this.

So, in summary, vaccines prevent the outbreak of (often dangerous) diseases such as polio and measles which used to be widespread – and ‘flu which is still common. The scientific consensus strongly supports their safety.