Concerns About Vaccines
By Dr Eric Miller
As a physician in the area for 20 years and a parent myself, I hear many concerns from parents about vaccines. They want to protect their children but worry about safety. Questions about receiving multiple vaccines at once, natural immunity, potential side effects, the use of fetal cells, and autism risk often come up. It is smart to ask these questions, to make sure we are choosing the best for our children. But the overwhelming evidence tells us that vaccines are safe, effective, and critical for keeping children healthy.
Multiple Vaccines at Once and at Such a Young Age: Overloading the Immune System?
A common concern is that receiving multiple vaccines at once might overwhelm such a young child’s immune system. In reality, a healthy baby’s immune system is exposed to thousands of new things daily through food, the environment, and normal bacterial exposure. The vaccines on the recommended schedule contain only a fraction of what a baby’s immune system can handle. Studies have consistently shown that receiving multiple vaccines at the same time is not dangerous. The schedule is carefully designed to protect children at the earliest possible time, before they are exposed to dangerous diseases. Waiting until they are older does not decrease potential side effects, and puts them at risk when they most need the help.
Natural Infection vs. Vaccination: Is It Better to Get the Disease?
Some believe it is better to let children get diseases naturally rather than vaccinate. While natural infections can lead to immunity, it comes at a cost. Diseases like measles, polio, and whooping cough can cause serious complications including brain damage, paralysis, and even death. Vaccines provide immunity without the severe risks of natural infection. For example, before the measles vaccine, hundreds of thousands of children contracted measles each year in the U.S., and thousands suffered from pneumonia, encephalitis, or death. Today, thanks to vaccines, these cases are rare.
Side Effects: Real, But Rare
No medical intervention is without risk, and vaccines are no exception. However, the vast majority of vaccine side effects are mild, like a sore arm or low-grade fever. Serious side effects, such as severe allergic reactions, are incredibly rare. I often say that vaccines are like seat belts. We all may have heard a story of a friend of a friend that, “would have been better off without a seat belt”. There are rare occasions where that might be true. But seat belts save 15,000 lives
per year in the U.S. Rather than deciding based on a passed-along scary story that someone heard, the simple math suggests we should wear seatbelts. Likewise, the risk of complications from vaccine-preventable diseases is far higher than the risk from getting the vaccines.
Fetal Cells in Vaccines: What is the Truth?
Some vaccines use cell lines originally derived from fetal tissue from 2 elective abortions in the 1960s, to grow viruses needed for production. These abortions were not done for the purpose of getting tissue for vaccines. No actual fetal tissue is present in vaccines, and no new fetal tissue has been used in vaccine development for decades. It is up to individuals to decide if using a bad thing done in the 1960s, but is no longer being done, should keep one from using that technology to save lives now. For me, I would compare it to a drunk driver killing someone on the road. It is a terrible event that no one wants, but I would still be open to using the victim as an organ donor to make something good come out of something bad.
Vaccines and Autism: The Science is Clear
In the early 1990s there seemed to be an increase in Autism, most likely from people just being more aware of it. During the same time period, we were introducing more vaccines. It made sense that there could be a link. In fact, a small study involving 12 children in 1988 did seem to make a link between the two. However, that study has been retracted after being proven fraudulent. Since then, extensive research including large-scale studies involving millions of children has found no link between vaccines and autism. The idea persists, but parents should know that vaccines do not cause autism.
Vaccines Protect Us All
Vaccines are one of the greatest public health achievements in history. They have saved millions of lives and continue to protect us from devastating diseases. It is natural for parents to have questions, but the science is clear: vaccines are safe and lifesaving. Protecting our children and our community means trusting the evidence and getting our immunizations