Safety research and testing is an essential part of developing vaccines.
Vaccine safety is first tested on animals. Then, if a vaccine is found to be safe in animal trials, it is
evaluated in humans in three phases of clinical trials.
Phase 1 trials:
The new vaccine is given to a small number (25–50) of healthy adults with the primary aim of assessing safety.
Phase 2 trials:
If the new vaccine is found to be safe in Phase 1, it is then given to hundreds of people to determine: how effectively
it stimulates immune responses; how much or how many doses need to be given in order to protect against the target disease;
and whether there are any side effects.
Phase 3 trials:
If the vaccine is found to be effective and safe, it is then given to many thousands of people to test whether it
protects large populations from the target disease and check if there are any uncommon or serious side eects. Every vaccine
given to Australian children must pass all of these phases before it is registered for use by the Therapeutic Goods Administration
The
safety and effectiveness of vaccines are under constant study. Because vaccines are designed to be given routinely during
well-child care visits, they must be
extraordinarily safe. Safety testing begins as soon as a new vaccine is contemplated, continues until it is licensed, and is monitored indefinitely after licensure.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) works closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to make recommendations for vaccine use.
Over the past decade, questions have been raised regarding a relationship between autism and vaccines. Along with general safety concerns, parents have wondered about:
- Too many vaccines overwhelming the immune system
- The measles, mumps, rubella combination vaccine (MMR)
- The preservative thimerosal, which was never present in MMR but was present in several vaccines used in the 1990s—it has since been removed from all routinely used childhood vaccines with the exception of flu.
Research has been conducted on all of these topics, and
the studies continue to find vaccines to be a safe and effective way to prevent serious disease.
This article lists those studies and provides links to the publications to allow parents—and all those who administer or recommend vaccines—to read the evidence for themselves. These studies do not show any link between autism and MMR vaccine, thimerosal,
multiple vaccines given at once, fevers or seizures
Vaccine Safety: Examine the Evidence
The cry of the antivax movement and thats been echoed here by some is that they are absolutely unsafe, and NO CHILD should be vaccinated.
Thats like saying because some people die in car accidents, no cars should be allowed on the road.
And i cant believe i read this
but with vaccines, unless there is an actual epidemic going on
Anti-Vaccine Movement Causes Worst Measles Epidemic In 20 Years
Anti-vaccine ‘propaganda’ is driving Minnesota’s measles outbreak
Measles outbreak spreading across Europe as parents shun vaccinations
Before the middle of the last century, diseases like whooping cough, polio, measles,
Haemophilus influenzae, and rubella struck hundreds of thousands of infants, children and adults in the U.S..
Thousands died every year from them. As vaccines were developed and became widely used, rates of these diseases declined until today most of them are nearly gone from our country.
- Nearly everyone in the U.S. got measles before there was a vaccine, and hundreds died from it each year. Today, most doctors have never seen a case of measles.
- More than 15,000 Americans died from diphtheria in 1921, before there was a vaccine. Only two cases of diphtheria have been reported to CDC between 2004 and 2014.
- An epidemic of rubella (German measles) in 1964-65 infected 12½ million Americans, killed 2,000 babies, and caused 11,000 miscarriages. Since 2012, 15 cases of rubella were reported to CDC.
Given successes like these, it might seem reasonable to ask, “Why should we keep vaccinating against diseases that we will probably never see?” Here is why:
Vaccines: Vac-Gen/What Would Happen If We Stopped Vaccinations
'Misinformation about vaccines continues to proliferate on the internet. This is dangerous'