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Home , Vaccination

Background information on safety and Policy POC: Christopher Bennett, (202) 621-1684

Media POC: Hannah Bassett, (202) 621-1691

Overview

Data on the safety, impact and results of are robust and irrefutable – are one of the safest and most cost-effective ways to prevent and control . Every dollar spent on results in an average return that is 16 times greater in healthcare costs and productivity.

To ensure that decades of steady public gains are not lost, it is important to dispel misconceptions about vaccines. Pediatricians, scientists and experts agree: vaccines protect, vaccines are necessary and vaccines work. They have tremendous potential to prevent disease and save lives, but only if vaccine acceptance remains high.

Thanks to the drastically reduced burden of vaccine-preventable in the , many young parents have never seen a case of vaccine-preventable disease like encephalitis. This may be causing some parents to believe these diseases are no longer a risk. A retracted study incorrectly claiming a link between childhood and the development of continues to be cited and some people say they are concerned about the number of immunizations the CDC recommends children receive before their second birthday.

If significant enough numbers of parents delay or refuse vaccination, it poses a very real threat to decades of steady public health gains. It is important that parents and policy makers understand that supporting immunization domestically and abroad is one of the best ways to prevent and control outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases in the United States. Infectious diseases know no borders.

Impact of immunization  Immunization prevents an estimated 2.5 million deaths among children under five each year  In the United States alone, vaccines have prevented more than 732,000 deaths and 21 million hospitalizations over the last 20 years  A new study forecasting the impact of on mortality estimates that vaccinations administered between 2011 and 2020 will help to avert more than 23 million future deaths  Many centuries-old diseases have been eradicated or pushed to the brink of extinction thanks to vaccination. The last case of (which was fatal in up to 30 percent of cases) in the world occurred in 1977. The global of has dropped 99 percent, from an estimated 350,000 cases in 1988 to 74 reported cases in 2015. More recently, deaths from measles have decreased approximately 80 percent from 651,500 to 134,000 since 2000

Vaccine hesitancy  “” refers to an attitude or behavior of those who choose not to vaccinate on the recommended schedule but have access to vaccination  Some parents are deciding to delay the CDC-recommended immunization schedule rather than decline vaccination altogether. Delaying vaccinations puts children at increased risk of serious complications or even death due to they would otherwise have been protected against. Many of these diseases pose a significant threat to young children; the protection conferred by these vaccines can’t wait

 There is no evidence to suggest that a healthy child’s will be negatively affected by receiving several vaccines at one time  Parents opting to forgo immunization altogether are the minority. According to the CDC, the percentage of children who have not received any vaccines is less than 1 percent  When a critical percentage of a population is immunized against a disease, “community ” is able to keep contagious diseases out of a population and protect vulnerable groups such as infants too young to be vaccinated, the elderly and infirm – those who are at greatest risk  When the percentage of children in a community who have received the falls below a certain coverage rate (rates vary by disease), there is the potential for outbreaks. For example, a measles outbreak could occur in Texas if vaccination coverage falls below 95 percent. Measles caused an estimated 2.6 million deaths each year prior to 1980, when widespread vaccination began Vaccine safety and oversight  From clinical trials to licensing by the FDA, vaccines are thoroughly tested and evaluated before they are approved. Vaccines have never been safer than they are today  The CDC’s Immunization Safety Office identifies possible vaccine and conducts studies to determine whether health problems are caused by vaccines. There are many US government committees and organizations to assure the safety of vaccines, including: o Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines (ACCV) o National Vaccine Advisory Committee (NVAC) o Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) o Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) o Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER)

Vaccines and  There is ample and robust evidence proving there is no link between thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative previously used in childhood vaccines, and autism  Thimerosal was removed from all childhood vaccines in the United States in 2001 due to now- disproven concerns that it might be harmful to children. There was no change in autism rates when thimerosal was removed from these vaccines  The material formed when the body breaks down thimerosal is ethylmercury. Ethylmercury is a different material from , which is the type of mercury that can harm the nervous system. There is no link between autism and mercury or thimerosal  While thimerosal was removed from all childhood vaccines, it is still used in multi-dose flu vaccines. The only possible major thimerosal exposure to children is during maternal immunization if the pregnant woman receives the multi-dose flu vaccine. A recent study published in JAMA Pediatrics showed there is no link with between maternal and increased risk of autism  In 2012, an analysis of 10 independent studies including more than 1.26 million children found no relationship between autism and vaccination in general or the measles, and – also known as MMR – vaccine specifically. This same study also found no link between autism and mercury or thimerosal  Due to the overwhelming evidence that there is a genetic or epigenetic basis for autism, researchers are investigating that damage could be done by the drugs thalidomide, misoprostol and valproic acid; by exposure to the insecticide chlorpyrifos; and by of the mother with the rubella