Understanding the Importance of Immunizations for Kids

Of all the areas we discuss at a Well Child visit, the one that comes up most frequently seems to be vaccines and immunizations. Think of immunizations as training exercises for your child's immune system. They introduce a weakened or inactive version of a disease-causing germ (like a virus or bacteria) to the body. This allows the immune system to recognize the germ and create antibodies to fight it off, without actually causing the illness. So, if your child ever encounters the real germ in the future, their immune system is already prepared to defend them, preventing them from getting seriously sick, or even dying.

Are vaccines safe?

There is no treatment that is 100% risk free, and I am skeptical of anyone who says otherwise, but the safety of vaccines has been well studied. Think of it this way - most medications that are prescribed in pediatrics are only used by a small percentage of children. Vaccines are recommended for all children, so there are millions of doses given annually throughout the world. Yet the incidence of serious side effects from vaccines is far lower than that of most prescription drugs.  Yes, bad things can happen from vaccines. But the risk is very small.  It’s like saying that we shouldn’t use seatbelts because, rarely, someone has passed away from being trapped in the car by the seatbelt after an accident. While we should take that seriously and work on making seatbelts safer, it doesn’t change the fact that seatbelts save lives every day.  When you weigh the risks and benefits, vaccines are far safer than the illnesses they are trying to prevent.

Do vaccines cause autism?

No. In 1998, there was a study by Andrew Wakefield in the Lancet, a well-known medical journal. It indicated a possible link between the MMR vaccine and autism. But the study was not designed very well, and it only contained 12 children. Dozens of stronger studies since then have not shown any link between autism and the MMR vaccine (or any other vaccine that is currently available). Additionally, the Lancet retracted the study in 2010. New information showed that Wakefield was involved in patenting a vaccine that would compete with the MMR, meaning he stood to make a significant financial gain from his study. Despite this new information, fear of the MMR vaccine is still prevalent (https://www.texaschildrens.org/content/wellness/making-sense-dr-andrew-wakefield-now).

What about all the negative research about vaccines?

There are a lot of things to consider when evaluating a study. What questions are they asking? What are the characteristics of the patients who participated? How was the study conducted? How many people were in the study? Often, the conclusion that is reported in the headlines is very different from the conclusion the authors report. Or that conclusion gets applied to a group of patients that wasn’t in the actual study. For these reasons, you can find a study to support pretty much any conclusion you want (which is also called confirmation bias). When interpreting research, we have to look for trends. If multiple, well-constructed studies come to the same conclusion, I’m more likely to take that finding seriously. Because most of us don’t have the time or the research background to sort through piles of data, we look to medical groups whose job it is to analyze data and create recommendations. This is also why medical guidelines don’t change quickly.  One study just isn’t enough to change established practices. Incidentally, AI has made this all a lot more complicated. Now, it’s very easy to generate guidelines based on research that doesn’t even exist.

Are we giving too many vaccines?

Each vaccine contains a very small particle or antigen from a specific virus or bacteria. Viruses and bacteria are all around us. A simple outing to the store, church, or a park can expose a child to more antigens than they get in the entire vaccine series. The body’s immune system is not overwhelmed by the numerous germs we encounter every day.  Plus, the antigens in vaccines are purified and processed to be as small as possible while still triggering a strong protective response. The technology has gotten so much better over the years. The current vaccine schedule for the first two years of life contains fewer antigens than a single dose of the original pertussis vaccine! (Vaccine Education Center; Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia).

As parents, very few things matter more to us than our children’s safety. We are constantly being bombarded with messages to do our own research. This is not a bad thing. Parents should be involved in every decision that affects the health of their child. But with so much conflicting information at our fingertips, none of us can be an expert on every subject. We need other people (preferably those we can look directly in the eye) to help us sort through it. When it comes to your vaccine questions, a doctor you can trust can be your best advocate. Reach out to your child's provider for any other questions.