Myths and Facts About Vaccines
Vaccines work with your body’s immune system to reduce the risks of getting a disease and build lasting protection against it. When you get a vaccine, your immune system marshals its defense forces, learning to recognize the pathogen so it can fight it if it encounters it for real.
We have vaccines that prevent over 20 life-threatening diseases, helping people of all ages live longer and healthier lives. The World Health Organization states that immunization currently prevents 3.5 million-5 million deaths every year from diseases like diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, influenza, and measles.
The problem with vaccines? There are so many myths and so much misinformation floating about that many people are afraid to vaccinate their children, causing outbreaks of once-thought-defunct diseases.
At Shah Medical Center in Elgin, Illinois, Dr. Heena Shyamani and our team of expert internal medicine specialists offer vaccinations as a routine part of our preventative care services. Because there’s so much misinformation about vaccines, the team wants to take this opportunity to debunk the myths and help you get the preventative treatment you need.
Myths about vaccines, and the facts that debunk them
Take a look at some common vaccine myths:
Myth #1: Vaccines contain many harmful ingredients
Fact: Any substance can be harmful if taken in high enough doses, including plain water. Vaccines contain ingredients at doses lower than what we’re naturally exposed to in our environment.
Thimerosal, for example, is a mercury-containing compound and a widely used preservative for vaccines manufactured in multidose vials. We’re naturally exposed to mercury in products like milk, seafood, and contact lens solutions, and there’s no evidence to suggest that the amount of thimerosal in vaccines poses a health risk.
What’s more, many vaccine manufacturers have shifted to distributing the vaccines in single-dose vials, substantially decreasing thimerosal use.
Myth #2: Vaccines can cause autism
Fact: This myth is based on the 1998 paper by Dr. Andrew Wakefield and 11 other authors that was published in the scientific journal Nature. It raised concerns about a possible link between the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism.
What’s important to know is that it was vigorously contested by the scientific community because the results were significantly flawed by bad scientific practices. Eleven of the authors removed their names from the article, the journal retracted the article, and Wakefield lost his medical license. There is NO observable correlation between vaccinations and autism, SIDS, or any other disease.
In actuality, a disease that can be prevented by a vaccine is far more likely to cause illness than the vaccine itself. For example, polio can cause paralysis, measles can cause encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) and blindness, and some vaccine-preventable diseases can even cause death. The benefits of vaccination greatly outweigh any risks.
Myth #3: Vaccine-preventable diseases are part of childhood, and it’s better to have the disease than become immune through vaccines
Fact: Vaccine-preventable diseases can have serious complications that can be avoided through proper immunization. Take the flu. More than 226,000 people are hospitalized from influenza complications each year, and 36,000 people die from it.
The influenza vaccine, given each fall, stimulates the immune system to produce a response similar to a natural infection, but it neither causes the disease nor puts the immunized person at risk of complications, as the natural virus would.
Myth #4: I don’t need to vaccinate my child because all the kids around them are already immune
Fact: This is what’s known as herd immunity. Herd immunity takes place when a large portion of a community is vaccinated against a contagious disease, reducing the chance of a serious outbreak. Infants under six months, pregnant women, and people who are immunocompromised and can’t get vaccinated depend on this type of protection.
However, if enough people think that a large portion of other people are vaccinated, but they’re not, herd immunity disappears, and the pathogen is free to cause widespread and severe disease.
Want to learn more about vaccines? Need to get vaccinated? Contact Shah Medical Center by calling the office at 847-410-1066, or book online with us today.