Are There Any Long-Term Studies On Vaccine Safety?

Vaccines are evaluated for safety in studies when they get approved.

Is that enough?

“I would like to see us do more long-term safety research studies on these large groups of children, so then we can determine that they are safe in the long-term.”

Bob Sears

Apparently not for everyone…

Are There Any Long-Term Studies On Vaccine Safety?

Of course, vaccines continue to be evaluated for safety after they approved, using passive and active vaccine safety systems and long-term post-marketing safety studies.

“We learn about a vaccine’s safety during clinical trials before it is licensed, and monitor it continually as millions of doses are administered after it is licensed. We also know there is not a plausible biologic reason to believe vaccines would cause any serious long-term effects. Based on more than 50 years of experience with vaccines, we can say that the likelihood that a vaccine will cause unanticipated long-term problems is extremely low.”

Parents’ Guide to Childhood Immunizations

These long term studies on vaccine safety have looked at:

• Vaccination Status and Health in Children and Adolescents. Findings of the German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Children and Adolescents (KiGGS) – unvaccinated kids just got more vaccinated preventable diseases
• Primary Ovarian Insufficiency and Adolescent Vaccination – no increased risk of primary ovarian insufficiency after HPV, Tdap, or meningococcal vaccines in this eight year study
• On-time vaccine receipt in the first year does not adversely affect neuropsychological outcomes. – Timely vaccination during infancy has no adverse effect on neuropsychological outcomes 7 to 10 years later.
• Association Between Estimated Cumulative Vaccine Antigen Exposure Through the First 23 Months of Life and Non-Vaccine-Targeted Infections From 24 Through 47 Months of Age – Participants were children ages 24 through 47 months, born between January 1, 2003, and September 31, 2013, followed up until December 31, 2015 and found no increased risk for infections not targeted by vaccines
• Patterns of childhood immunization and all-cause mortality – found no difference in risk of all-cause mortality among fully vaccinated versus undervaccinated children in these kids followed until they were 48 months old
• Sustained efficacy, immunogenicity, and safety of the HPV-16/18 AS04-adjuvanted vaccine: final analysis of a long-term follow-up study up to 9.4 years post-vaccination – found no safety concerns
• Long-term health effects of repeated exposure to multiple vaccines. – multiply immunized (MIP) subjects, observed for a median of 17 years, had no clinically significant differences with matched controls
• Human papillomavirus vaccination and risk of autoimmune diseases: A large cohort study of over 2million young girls in France. – no increased risk of autoimmune diseases during 33 month followup
• Long-term follow-up of persons inadvertently inoculated with SV40 as neonates. – no excess risk of cancer 17 to 19 years after getting vaccines contaminated with the SV40 virus
• Live Attenuated Influenza Vaccination Before 3 Years of Age and Subsequent Development of Asthma: A 14-year Follow-up Study. – no increased risk for asthma
• Lack of association between receipt of conjugate haemophilus influenzae type B vaccine (HbOC) in infancy and risk of type 1 (juvenile onset) diabetes: long term follow-up of the HbOC efficacy trial cohort. – no extra risk of diabetes found 10 years after vaccination
• Number of antigens in early childhood vaccines and neuropsychological outcomes at age 7-10 years. – the number of antigens received in the first two years was not associated with any later adverse neuropsychological outcomes.
• Early-life determinants of asthma from birth to age 20 years: a German birth cohort study – asthma incidence was lower in vaccinated children – they were were evaluated from birth to age 20 years at 19 time points.
• Rotavirus Vaccination and the Risk of Celiac Disease or Type 1 Diabetes in Finnish Children at Early Life – did unvaccinated kids get more Celiac disease or diabetes? No, no they didn’t in the 4-6 year follow up period.

Have you heard about these studies before?

Probably not.

Anti-vaccine folks either aren’t aware of, or just don’t want you to know about these types of long-term studies.

It’s easier to scare you away from vaccinating and protecting your kids if they make you believe that vaccines aren’t tested together, aren’t tested with placebos, aren’t tested vs unvaccinated kids, and aren’t tested for long periods of time.

They are!

More on Long-Term Studies On Vaccine Safety

• Why Are You Still Worried About the MMR Vaccine?
• Why Aren’t Vaccines Regulated like Drugs?
• Are Vaccines Evaluated for Mutagenicity, Carcinogenicity or Impairment of Fertility?
• More Questions to Help You Become a Vaccine Skeptic
• Answers To Frequently Asked Questions About Immunizations
• What Are the Pro and Con Arguments for Vaccines?
• CDC – Parents’ Guide to Childhood Immunizations
• CDC – Safety Information About Specific Vaccines
• The Vaccine Safety Datalink: A Model for Monitoring Immunization Safety
• Vaccine Safety Monitoring
• Study – Lack of association between hepatitis B birth immunization and neonatal death: a population-based study from the vaccine safety datalink project.
• The Facts Behind Vaccine Safety
• Safety of Vaccines Used for Routine Immunization in the United States
• Vaccine Safety Bibliography
• Study – Principal Controversies in Vaccine Safety in the United States
• Dr. Robert W. Sears: Why Partial Vaccinations May Be an Answer
• Another study supports the long term safety of Gardasil