The Internet is filled with half truths and flat-out falsehoods about vaccines — here's nine of the most pervasive vaccine myths and the facts behind them.
When elements of science are taken up in popular discourse, facts are often the first things to die. The same holds true for discussions about vaccines. Here are some of the more pervasive and persistent anti-vaccine myths, and why people who spout them are wrong:
1. The MMR vaccine is directly linked to autism
The facts: Thanks to one fraudulent 1998 study by former British doctor Andrew Wakefield, the erroneous association between the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR) and autism persists. Studying only 12 child patients, Wakefield noted that a majority of them started showing symptoms of a behavioral disorder soon after receiving the MMR immunization. Wakefield then concluded that the vaccine was behind the ensuing autism diagnoses.
Andrew Wakefield, the father of the faulty vaccine/autism link.
Wakefield’s 1998 study was found to be riddled with procedural errors, and an investigation by the British medical journal BMJ found that 5 of the 12 child patients showed developmental problems before receiving the MMR vaccine, and 3 never had autism.
Coupled with the study’s ridiculously small sample size, Wakefield’s inability to reproduce his findings gave the study absolutely zero authority. In fact, Wakefield’s conclusions were so far in the wrong that he was stripped of his medical license in 2010 for ethical violations and refusal to disclose probable financial conflict of interest.
Many major medical studies have been conducted since Wakefield’s “discovery,” and none of them have found the link between the MMR vaccine and autism. In fact, the research supports the claim that autism develops in utero.
2. Vaccines contain harmful toxins
The facts: Many anti-vaxxers have raised concerns over the fact that trace amounts of mercury, formaldehyde, and aluminum are present in some vaccines. These skeptics do so in spite of the reality that the FDA regularly conducts rigorous studies to ensure the safety of the one billion-plus doses of vaccines that are administered worldwide.
Likewise, vaccine skeptics ignore the time-honored pharmacological maxim that “the dose makes the poison.” Small amounts of toxins can be found in all sorts of “natural” products—in fact the human body produces more formaldehyde than whatever trace amount can be found in a vaccine. What matters is dosage, and the tiny amounts of these chemicals present is too small to cause any negative health impact.
These chemicals are not waste products, either: Aluminium hydroxide, for example, can help enhance the immune response and thus makes the vaccine more effective; formaldehyde can help kill viruses, and phenol is a useful preservative.
3. An infant’s immune system can’t handle multiple vaccines
The facts: Anti-vaxxers say that because an infant’s immune system is so young, it can’t effectively receive multiple vaccines at the same time. If this were true, the increase in the number of vaccines would not result in a decrease of vaccine-preventable diseases.
This is not the case: as reported by the American Academy of Pediatrics, “The increased number of vaccines given to children and the increased percentage of children receiving vaccines have resulted in a dramatic decrease in the number of vaccine-preventable diseases.”
Since infants are exposed to so many germs each day—with the New York Department of Health reporting that a baby’s immune system can respond to 100,000 organisms at a time—the killed/disabled antigens in a strand of disease (the vaccine) will have little to no impact on their immune system. In fact, scientists say that even if all 14 scheduled vaccines were given at once, it would only use up slightly more than 0.1% of a baby’s immune capacity.
4. Adults that were vaccinated as children don’t need further immunizations
The facts: The immunity we receive from a given vaccine lessens over time, which means that as we age, further vaccines are often necessary. Likewise, diseases such as pneumococcal disease; hepatitis A and B; tetanus; diphtheria and pertussis; meningococcal disease and shingles are all painful diseases that can strike adults, and which vaccines can prevent. In the words of former US Assistant Surgeon General Anne Schuchat, “We really need to get beyond the mentality that vaccines are for kids. Vaccines are for everybody.”
How the measles presents in small children. Source: Student Society for Science
5. You don’t need to be vaccinated against diseases that are eradicated in the US
The facts: Herd immunity essentially says that if the majority of a given population is immunized against a given disease, even those who aren’t immunized are “protected” from the disease because the proportion of those resistant is so large that an infectious disease simply cannot establish itself and spread.
The key to herd immunity working, though, is that a majority of people are vaccinated. If fewer people vaccinate their children, the herd becomes smaller, which increases the probability that an infectious disease can establish itself and spread.
6. Natural immunity is better than immunity acquired from vaccines
The facts: Sometimes natural immunity—or catching a disease and then getting over it—can provide strong antibodies against disease. That is, of course, if you are willing to take the increased costs associated with contracting the disease in the first place. If you catch the measles, your chance of death is 1 in 500. If you vaccinate, however, your chances of having a severe allergic reaction is less than 1 in a million. Some say that “vaccines aren’t worth the risk,” but these numbers prove otherwise.
7. Modern sanitation and better hygiene are responsible for less disease, not vaccines
The facts: While the importance of hygiene and good sanitation practices can’t be denied in improving the overall health of US citizens, the part that vaccines have played in this cannot be discounted, either. In 1970, nearly a decade after the measles immunization was introduced, measles cases dropped from 400,000 to 25,000. If people stop receiving their vaccinations, diseases such as polio will return, no matter how clean we are.
Children with polio before regular vaccination became the norm. Source: Carrington.edu
8. The fact that a Vaccine Injury Compensation Program exists proves vaccines are dangerous
The facts: The main reason that this program exists is to keep vaccine manufacturers in business: in the ’70s and ’80s, many manufacturers feared that they would be the subjects of a rash of expensive lawsuits, which might force them to shutter their operations. If this happened, the United States could very well experience a vaccine shortage, which is why former California representative Henry Waxman helped launch the injury compensation program in 1986.
The program provides a no-fault system for either party: “If people could prove they suffered an injury that has been known to be caused by vaccine,” NBC News wrote in a vaccine myth-debunking piece, “they could be compensated without having to prove the vaccine caused the problem. It’s paid for by a tax on vaccines.”
9. We wouldn’t have any cases of measles in the US if it weren’t for illegal immigrants
The facts: In 2014, the worst year for measles in the U.S. since 1994, 635 out of 644 cases of measles were in U.S. citizens. Of these, 77% were un-vaccinated. Likewise, the issue isn’t that “illegal” immigrants are bringing disease to the US (the measles have been all but eradicated in the Americas); it’s that non-immunized Americans are traveling overseas to places where measles are more prevalent, and then bringing the disease back with them.
