The only reason some folks question the risk-benefit ratio of vaccines is because most of them have never had or even known anyone with a vaccine-preventable disease.
Of course, that’s simply because most people are vaccinated and protected. But if enough folks decide to skip or delay their vaccines, then we will have outbreaks and a higher risk of getting sick.
We shouldn’t have to wait for outbreaks for anyone to understand that the benefits of vaccines far outweigh their risks though.
Are the Risks Greater Than the Benefits for Any Vaccines?
Vaccines are safe, effective, and necessary.
Unless you have a true contraindication to getting vaccinated, until a disease is eradicated, the benefits of a vaccine will typically be far greater than its risks.
The switch from the live, oral polio vaccine to the inactivated vaccine is a good example of when this wasn’t the case though. Since OPV could rarely cause vaccine-associated paralytic polio (VAPP), once polio was well controlled in the United States, the risk of this side effect became greater than the benefit of continuing to use the vaccine, but only because we had an alternative polio vaccine that didn’t cause VAPP.
Similarly, the original rotavirus vaccine was withdrawn because the extra risk of intussusception, even though it was small, was thought to be greater than the benefits of the vaccine.
In the great majority of cases though, to think that getting vaccinated is a bigger risk than getting a vaccine preventable disease, you have to buy into the anti-vaccine hype:
- that vaccine injuries are common
- about Big Pharma conspiracies
- that there are many vaccine induced diseases
- that vaccines are full of poisons and toxins
- pushing the idea that vaccine-preventable diseases are mild
- that vaccines don’t even work
- that natural immunity is better than immunity from a vaccine
Of course, none of that is true. These, and other anti-vaccine talking points have been refuted time after time.
Don’t put your kids at risk.
Don’t put others at risk from your unvaccinated child.
Get them vaccinated and protected.
More on Risks and Benefits of Vaccines
- VAXOPEDIA – What Are the Benefits of Vaccines?
- VAXOPEDIA – What Are the Risks of Vaccines?
- VAXOPEDIA – Learn the Risks of Following Bad Advice
- VAXOPEDIA – Learn the Risks of Falling for Anti-Vaccine Propaganda
- VAXOPEDIA – How Can the Unvaccinated Spread Diseases They Don’t Have?
- VAXOPEDIA – How Many People Die in the USA Every Year from Being Vaccinated?
- VAXOPEDIA – How Many People Die from Vaccine Preventable Diseases These Days?
- VAXOPEDIA – Which Vaccine Is the Most Dangerous? –
- VAXOPEDIA – Why Are You Still Worried About the MMR Vaccine?
- Top 10 Reasons to Protect Children Through Vaccination
- Vaccine Benefits vs Risks
- Five Important Reasons to Vaccinate Your Child
- CDC – Benefits from Immunization During the Vaccines for Children Program Era — United States, 1994–2013
- WHO – Vaccination greatly reduces disease, disability, death and inequity worldwide
- CDC – Why Immunize?
- Who benefits from vaccines?
- Economic benefits of vaccines
- The benefits of the measles vaccine go beyond measles
- Vaccine adverse events are rare–vast benefits outweigh risks
- The horrible consequences of seeking “natural” immunity
- Study – Valuing vaccines: deficiencies and remedies.
- Study – Beyond efficacy: The full public health impact of vaccines.
- Study – Maternal benefits of immunization during pregnancy.
- Study – Do immunisations reduce the risk for SIDS? A meta-analysis.