Vaccinations have provided significant protection for the public against infectious diseases. However, there was a modest decrease in support in 2023 nationwide for vaccine requirements for children to attend public schools.
In addition, the presidential candidacy of Robert F Kennedy Jr, a leading critic of childhood vaccination, has given him a prominent platform in which to amplify his views. This includes an extensive interview on the “Joe Rogan Experience,” a podcast with over 14 million subscribers. Notably, former President Donald Trump has said he is opposed to mandatory school COVID-19 vaccinations, and in a phone call Trump apparently wasn’t aware was being recorded, he appeared to endorse Kennedy’s views toward vaccines.
I am a biochemist and molecular biologist studying the roles microbes play in health and disease. I also teach medical students and am interested in how the public understands science.
Here are some facts about vaccines that skeptics like Kennedy get wrong:
Vaccines are effective and safe
Public health data from 1974 to the present conclude that vaccines have saved at least 154 million lives worldwide over the past 50 years. Vaccines are also constantly monitored for safety in the U.S.
Nevertheless, the false claim that vaccines cause autism persists despite study after study of large populations throughout the world showing no causal link between them.
Claims about the dangers of vaccines often come from misrepresenting scientific research papers. Kennedy cites a 2005 report allegedly showing massive brain inflammation in monkeys in response to vaccination, when in fact the authors of that study state that there were no serious medical complications. A separate 2003 study that Kennedy claimed showed a 1,135% increase in autism in vaccinated versus unvaccinated children actually found no consistent significant association between vaccines and neurodevelopmental outcomes.
Kennedy also claims that a 2002 vaccine study included a control group of children 6 months of age and younger who were fed mercury-contaminated tuna sandwiches. This claim is false.
Aluminum adjuvants help boost immunity
Kennedy is co-counsel with a law firm that is suing the pharmaceutical company Merck based in part on the unfounded assertion that the aluminum in one of its vaccines causes neurological disease. Aluminum is added to many vaccines as an adjuvant to strengthen the body’s immune response to the vaccine, thereby enhancing the body’s defense against the targeted microbe.
The law firm’s claim is based on a 2020 report showing that brain tissue from some patients with Alzheimer’s disease, autism and multiple sclerosis have elevated levels of aluminum. The authors of that study do not assert that vaccines are the source of the aluminum, and vaccines are unlikely to be the culprit.
Notably, the brain samples analyzed in that study were from 47- to 105-year-old patients. Most people are exposed to aluminum primarily through their diets, and aluminum is eliminated from the body within days. Therefore, aluminum exposure from childhood vaccines is not expected to persist in those patients.
Vaccines undergo the same approval process as other drugs
Clinical trials for vaccines and other drugs are blinded, randomized and placebo-controlled studies. For a vaccine trial, this means that participants are randomly divided into one group that receives the vaccine and a second group that receives a placebo saline solution. The researchers carrying out the study, and sometimes the participants, do not know who has received the vaccine or the placebo until the study has finished. This eliminates bias.
Results are published in the public domain. For example, vaccine trial data for COVID-19, human papilloma virus and rotavirus is available for anyone to access.
Vaccine manufacturers are liable for injury or death
Kennedy’s lawsuit against Merck contradicts his insistence that vaccine manufacturers are fully immune from litigation.
His claim is based on an incorrect interpretation of the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, or VICP. VICP is a no-fault federal program created to reduce frivolous lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers, which threaten to cause vaccine shortages and a resurgence of vaccine-preventable disease.
A person claiming injury from a vaccine can petition the U.S. Court of Federal Claims through the VICP for monetary compensation. If the VICP petition is denied, the claimant can then sue the vaccine manufacturer.
The majority of cases resolved under the VICP end in a negotiated settlement between parties without establishing that a vaccine was the cause of the claimed injury. Kennedy and his law firm have incorrectly used the payouts under the VICP to assert that vaccines are unsafe.
The VICP gets the vaccine manufacturer off the hook only if it has complied with all requirements of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act and exercised due care. It does not protect the vaccine maker from claims of fraud or withholding information regarding the safety or efficacy of the vaccine during its development or after approval.
Good nutrition and sanitation are not substitutes for vaccination
Kennedy asserts that populations with adequate nutrition do not need vaccines to avoid infectious diseases. While it is clear that improvements in nutrition, sanitation, water treatment, food safety and public health measures have played important roles in reducing deaths and severe complications from infectious diseases, these factors do not eliminate the need for vaccines.
After World War II, the U.S. was a wealthy nation with substantial health-related infrastructure. Yet, Americans reported an average of 1 million cases per year of now-preventable infectious diseases.
Vaccines introduced or expanded in the 1950s and 1960s against diseases like diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, measles, polio, mumps, rubella and Haemophilus influenza type B have resulted in the near or complete eradication of those diseases.
It’s easy to forget why many infectious diseases are rarely encountered today. The success of vaccines does not always tell its own story. It must be retold again and again to counter misinformation.
Mark R O'Brian is Professor and Chair, Department of Biochemistry, University at Buffalo, New York.
The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.
© The Conversation
20 Comments
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Banthu
So are the vast majority of American parents.
In the US, children become eligible for a Covid vaccine at 6 months old.
However, well over 95% of American mothers are opting to keep their children unvaccinated and only a tiny fringe minority is actually taking their 6 month old baby to get an initial mRNA vaccine.
If the Dems plan to run on touting their mask and vaccine mandate platform, they will get crushed at the polls.
Bob Fosse
They don’t. Fret not.
Peter Neil
a lie travels halfway around the world before the truth can get its boots on.
remember the misinformation about the link between autism and vaccinations? the doctor who published the paper was stripped of his medical license for the falsely contrived result. and he even recanted it later.
but still, the myth persists and loonie tunes like kennedy profit from continuing to spread it.
it's something called brandolini's law. i urge you to look it up. it's appropriate to many topics here, particularly to politics.
Strangerland
They'll point it out to remind people of the disaster of Trump's pandemic response. But it has nothing to do with the policy that Kamala has been drilling on the Neutral News Networks, that the Independents are watching.
FizzBit
Must be marinating the public for the next bird flu mRNA scam
Anonymous
Trump was following the infallible Fauci’s advice as did Joe Biden after him.
virusrex
Any source for this claim? anything to prove that the "vast majority" of parents are wrong?
Which is not the same as your first claim, and of course it does nothing to disprove the fact that vaccines are safe and effective for everybody that is indicated to take them, smoking is very popular as well, that does not make science wrong about it either.
So vaccines that are proved to save countless lives are a scam now? is your idea of cost-effective to just let lots of people die even when a relatively cheap intervention could have prevented those deaths?
It is well described how not only Fauci but many other people responsible for the response had to work against Trump and his declarations, that is not following advice but being a huge obstacle in the efforts.
kurisupisu
If the vaccines were so effective then why the need for mask wearing and lockdowns?
I’m never falling for the lies and manipulation again…
Strangerland
Because it kept deaths lower than without those silly.
Widely reported.
TaiwanIsNotChina
We'd still have Polio and Smallpox if anti-science nutters had their way.
Raw Beer
They might have saved some lives, but they cost many more. I'm surprised so many people still believe the "safe and effective" narrative.
Bob Fosse
They cost more lives than they saved?
How many did they cost? Any ‘rough’ numbers?
starpunk
trumpster has proven time after time, again and again to being the most worthless and unreliable excuse for anything. His mishandling of Covid and his LIES (it's a hoax, inject Clorox, blaaaaaaaa-aaaaaahhhh!!!!!) and stirring up violence with his screaming 'LIBERATE!' tweets to his MAGA cult.
And vaccinations weren't even discovered or made available until about November or December of 2020. By that time over 1 million Americans had lost their lives to the pandemic, worse than even India, China, Brazil. Because of an irresponsible lying scumpot pretending to be a POTUS.
Look at the timeline. Covid reached North America in March 2020. It had already spread across East Asia. And it eventually engulfed the planet, even Antarctica. The mask wearings and lockdowns did some good. Even now there are some restrictions on activities.
Religious leaders incl. Pope Francis have been vaccinated and strongly endorse it. Entertainment figures ranging from Arnold Schwarzeneggar, Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, Yo Yo Ma, Mr. T and more have posted announcements about getting vaxxed. Some touring musicians have got the virus but survived because the vaxx works. The vaxx has kept Pres. Joe alive so he could DO his Presidential duties. And all foreign entertainers coming to the US had to be vaxxed. That means that Genesis had to get vaxxed before embarking on their final world tour. Same for Kraftwerk before I saw them this past May. And everyone who's in Paris for the Olympic Games.
Covid has been on the rise again in the US lately but it's not as bad as it was. When my local VA clinic offers booster #7, I will get it. This is no fooling around.
virusrex
Because rational people can understand something can be very effective even when this is not a 100% percent. Proper signaling and design of roads are very effective ways to reduce in a great degree traffic accidents, even when seat belts and airbags are still needed.
Fortunately your claim is completely false and easily disproved, when you can't produce any evidence to refute a scientific fact it makes no sense to criticize those that trust that science, specially when your argument completely depends on impossible, irrational global conspiracies that nobody rational could believe.
Strangerland
Any links to any respectable medical organizations saying this, or is it more podcast science?
Bob Fosse
Yeah, that’s what I thought. Always crickets when you ask for a link.
John
That’s interesting because it seems that everyone has forgotten Jr., here.
zibala
Nevertheless, the false claim that vaccines cause autism persists despite study after study of large populations throughout the world showing no causal link between them.
Seems the experts disagree with this "scientist":
Court Awards Over $20 Million for Vaccine-Caused Autism
court's decision acknowledging that vaccines were responsible for the development of autism
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/court-awards-over-20-million-for-vaccine-caused-autism-102981579.html
Peter Neil
zibalaToday 01:52 am JST
Nevertheless, the false claim that vaccines cause autism persists despite study after study of large populations throughout the world showing no causal link between them.
Seems the experts disagree with this "scientist":
the quote is not from the court, it's from the national autism society press release.
the vaccines were not ruled to have caused autism, but rather aggravated a pre-existing mitochondrial dysfunction and the immune system was overwhelmed. the child already had a history of high fevers and seizures.
the court ruling was overturned, but a $1.5 million settlement was reached later because of the extraordinary legal fees being racked up.
it's always half truths and false conclusions with you people. do some damn research.
there will always be possible complications from any medication and not all pre-existing, contributing conditions are known. it's the measure of risk that is important.
virusrex
Except that as explained in the previous comment this claim is completely false, you could have saved yourself from repeating a false claim from an antivaxx propaganda group by making even the smallest amount of research about it and finding out no institution supports the claim that vaccines cause autism.
Unless of course you already knew this and purposefully tried to mislead people into making worse health decisions by promoting false information.