Immunization

Misconception #3 There are “lots” of vaccine that have been associated with more adverse events, including death.

Anti-vaccine groups often claim that certain vaccine lots are associated with more adverse events than others and that parents should avoid certain lots. This is misleading for several reasons. First of all, they base their statistics on VAERS reports alone. As previously mentioned, just because an event has been reported to VAERS does not mean it was actually caused by a vaccine. Secondly, vaccine lots are of different sizes. Naturally, if a vaccine lot is larger or has been in distribution longer, it would not be surprising to find more adverse event reports from that lot simply by chance.

Misconception #4 DTP vaccine causes sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

This claim came about because some infants who die of SIDS have been recently vaccinated with DTP. On the surface, this may seem to imply that the vaccine caused the deaths. However, SIDS deaths by definition take place in infancy, at a time when children are receiving the DTP series. Therefore, many deaths in infants will coincidentally occur after vaccination. Well controlled studies have shown that the numbers of SIDS deaths are not increased in infants who have received DTP. In fact, some studies have shown that vaccinated infants are less likely to die of SIDS (Institute of Medicine Report, 1996).

Misconception #5 Vaccine-preventable diseases have been virtually eliminated from the United States, so there is no need for children to be vaccinated.

Like most myths, this one contains a kernel of truth, but is misinterpreted and omits important additional information. While it is true that vaccination has enabled us to reduce most vaccine preventable diseases to very low levels in the United States, some of them are still quite prevalent -- even epidemic -- in other parts of the world. It does not take much imagination to picture the few cases of vaccine-preventable illness becoming many cases, if travelers from these areas brought infections into the U.S. without the protection we currently get from vaccines. With world travel and immigration at current levels, it would be foolhardy to stop vaccination simply because few cases of these diseases occur in the U.S. at present.

Misconception #6 Giving a child more than one vaccine at a time increases the risk of harmful side effects and can overload the immune system.

We are all exposed to many antigens every day (an antigen is a substance that is capable of inducing a response from our immune system). Every day events such as eating food, working in the yard, or petting a dog can introduce new antigens, including bacteria, into the body. An upper respiratory viral infection exposes a child to 4-10 antigens, and a case of “strep throat” to 25-50. According to a 1994