Vaccines

How do vaccines work?

Your immune system is composed of organs, cells, glands, and fluids. It’s one job is to keep you healthy.
To do this, your immune system will “attack” any foreign bacteria or viruses, called antigens, that it finds in
your body by producing proteins called antibodies. The first time your body is exposed to a particular
foreign substance, your immune system needs time to develop the antibodies that protect you from
getting sick.

Vaccination saves lives.

The main benefit of vaccination is that it prevents disease. In one year, vaccines prevent more than 8,500
child hospitalizations in Colorado, 33,000 deaths in the U.S., and between 2 and 3 million deaths
worldwide. Immunization is considered one of the greatest public health achievements of the 20th
century, and experts agree that immunization is key to staying healthy.

Vaccines can save children's lives. The American Academy of Pediatrics states that "most childhood
vaccines are 90%-99% effective in preventing disease." According to Shot@Life, a United Nations
Foundation partner organization, vaccines save 2.5 million children from preventable diseases every year,
which equates to roughly 285 children saved every hour. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
estimated that 732,000 American children were saved from death and 322 million cases of childhood
illnesses were prevented between 1994 and 2014 due to vaccination. The measles vaccine has
decreased childhood deaths from measles by 74%.

The ingredients in vaccines are safe in the amounts used. Ingredients, such as thimerosal,
formaldehyde, and aluminum, can be harmful in large doses but they are not used in harmful quantities in
vaccines. Children are exposed to more aluminum in breast milk and infant formula than they are
exposed to in vaccines. Paul Offit, MD, notes that children are exposed to more bacteria, viruses, toxins,
and other harmful substances in one day of normal activity than are in vaccines. With the exception of
inactivated flu vaccines, thimerosal (a mercury compound) has been removed or reduced to trace
amounts in vaccines for children under 6 years old. The FDA requires up to 10 or more years of testing
for all vaccines before they are licensed, and then they are monitored by the CDC and the FDA to make
sure the vaccines and the ingredients used in the vaccines are safe.

Major medical organizations state that vaccines are safe. These organizations include: CDC, Food
and Drug Administration (FDA), Institute of Medicine (IOM), American Medical Association (AMA),
American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), UNICEF, US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS),
World Health Organization (WHO), Public Health Agency of Canada, Canadian Paediatric Society,
National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID), and American Academy of Family Physicians
(AAFP). The WHO states, "Vaccines are very safe." The US Department of Health and Human Services
states, "Vaccines are some of the safest medical products available."

Adverse reactions to vaccines are extremely rare. The most common side effect of vaccines,
anaphylaxis (a severe allergic reaction), occurs in one per several hundred thousand to one per million
vaccinations. According to Sanjay Gupta, Chief Medical Correspondent for CNN and practicing
neurosurgeon, "you are 100 times more likely to be struck by lightning than to have a serious allergic
reaction to the vaccine that protects you against measles." Ellen Clayton, MD, JD, Professor of Pediatrics
and Law at Vanderbilt Law School and co-author of the 2011 IOM report "Committee to Review Adverse
Effects of Vaccines," summarized the results of the report: "The MMR vaccine does not cause autism…
The MMR and DTaP do not cause Type 1 diabetes. And the killed flu vaccine does not cause Bell’s palsy,
and it does not trigger episodes of asthma." Combination vaccines, like MMR (measles, mumps, and
rubella), have been used without adverse effects since the mid-1940s.

Vaccines protect the "herd." Herd immunity (or community immunity) means that when a "critical
portion" (the percent of people who need to be vaccinated to provide herd immunity) of a population is
vaccinated against a contagious disease it is unlikely that an outbreak of the disease will occur so most
members of the community will be protected. Children and adults who cannot be vaccinated due to age,
poor health (who are immune-compromised or undergoing chemotherapy, for example), or other reasons
rely on herd immunity to prevent contraction of vaccine-preventable diseases. A Jan. 2008 outbreak of
measles in San Diego, CA resulted in 48 children who had to be quarantined because they were too
young to be vaccinated and could not rely on herd immunity to keep them safe. In 2011, 49 US states did
not meet the 92-94% herd immunity threshold for pertussis (whooping cough), resulting in a 2012
outbreak that sickened 42,000 people and was the biggest outbreak since 1955. In 2005, an 18-month-
old Amish girl contracted polio and spread the disease to four other unvaccinated children, but, because
the community met the herd immunity threshold for the disease, there was no polio outbreak.

Vaccines save children and their parents time and money. Vaccines cost less in time and money to
obtain than infectious diseases cost in time off of work to care for a sick child, potential long-term disability
care, and medical costs. For example, children under five with the flu are contagious for about eight days,
and, according to a 2012 CDC study, cost their parents an average of 11 to 73 hours of wages (about
$222 to $1,456) and $300 to $4,000 in medical expenses.Children with rotavirus are contagious for up to
30 days. A Jan. 2008 outbreak of measles in San Diego, CA resulted in 11 unvaccinated children
catching measles and a resulting net public-sector cost of $10,376 per case (or, $123,512 total) due to
emergency vaccination and outbreak response. Furthermore, under the Patient Protection and Affordable
Care Act (PPACA, or Obamacare) many vaccines are available to children and adults without copay.