Vaccines: Which Ones Are Safe?

In this Article (Index)

The benefits of vaccination outweigh the possible side effects. Get your shots and protect your health.

• Vaccine Safety
• The Adverse Effects of Vaccines
• Potentially Risky Vaccines
• Vaccines are Safe

Vaccine safety

Are Vaccines Safe?

Safety concerns about vaccines date back to Edward Jenner's first vaccination efforts against smallpox in 1796.

Medicine has come a long way since then and scientists have developed vaccines that prevent over 20 life-threatening diseases, yet the safety concerns linger on.

Vaccines have been highly successful in saving lives. The World Health Organization estimates that globally they prevent 3.5 to 5 million deaths each year. (14)

However, they can also have side effects like any other therapy which may occasionally lead to death.

These adverse effects have been magnified by false information and misleading public opinion. Hesitancy is on the rise; and according to a Gallup poll, 10% of adult Americans believed, in 2020, that vaccines cause autism in children (with a further 46% who are unsure about vaccines’ negative effects). (2)

The answer to this section's opening question, whether vaccines are safe, is a definite "yes." Vaccines are safe, and their safety is based on science: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) keeps close tabs on vaccine safety by conducting focused research and analyzing vaccine-related reactions and potential risk factors. (3)

The Adverse Effects of Vaccines

Let’s examine the potential risks of vaccinations.

Side effects and reactions to vaccines

Fainting

Fainting is very uncommon and can take place after vaccination. Nevertheless, it provokes 140 head injuries each year in the U.S. and can be avoided by monitoring patients after they receive their shots. Remain seated, stand up slowly, and make sure you are steady before leaving the vaccination center. (4)

Allergies

Vaccines can cause minor allergic reactions but occasionally some of them can be serious, provoking a condition known as anaphylaxis which can be life-threatening. Nevertheless, the risk of anaphylaxis is extremely low (roughly 1 case every 1.5 million vaccinations). (5)

The jabs that may provoke serious allergic reactions are measles-mumps-rubella (MMR), hepatitis B, diphtheria-tetanus, diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP), Haemophilus influenza type b, and the oral polio vaccine which, by the way, is no longer used in the U.S.

Screening people with an allergic history can help prevent anaphylaxis, but it may not appear until someone is vaccinated. The best option is to take your shots with a healthcare provider that can cope with this type of emergency.

Weak Immunity

People with a weakened immune system due to congenital immunosuppressing diseases, HIV, chemotherapy, or radiation therapy for cancer, or those using immunosuppressive drugs (transplant and autoimmune disorder patients) should check with their physician before receiving any vaccine. The CDC recommends that these patients avoid live or attenuated but live vaccines such as MMR, chickenpox, LAIV, zoster, yellow fever, Ty21a oral typhoid, and rotavirus. (6)

Potentially Risky Vaccines

We singled out some common vaccines to check their risks.

Influenza

People with egg allergies should discuss influenza vaccination options with their doctor because some flu shots are made with eggs and may contain traces of egg protein.

HPV

The Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine prevents this common sexually transmitted disease which causes some 31,500 cancers in the US each year. Adverse reactions are uncommon; only 6 in 1,000,000 of them are serious.

Yellow Fever

You will need this shot if you plan to visit certain countries in Africa or South America. It can provoke two types of adverse reactions which mostly affect those aged over 60: one is an organ system failure with a high mortality rate of 63% in 1 out of every 250,000 doses; the other is a severe yet rarely fatal neurological disorder affecting 1 in 100,000 individuals. (7)

Rotavirus

This vaccine may provoke a rare yet serious condition in children called intussusception, in which the bowel telescopes into a neighboring section, causing an intestinal blockage that can result in death. A study estimated that vaccinating the 4.3 million babies born in the US each year against rotavirus prevents 14 deaths, 50,000 hospitalizations, and 170,000 ER visits. The downside is that it provokes 0.2 deaths. (8)

Measles and the Fake Autism Claim

Measles is making a comeback in the U.S. due to Anti-vaxxers

A scientific paper published in 1998 in The Lancet linked the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine with autism. The magazine belatedly retracted the paper in 2010 and its lead author Dr. Andrew Wakefield was stripped of his medical license in the UK, yet the false claim has lived on till today. (9)

Measles is deadly; it kills 2 out of every 1,000 who get it and causes permanent hearing loss in 10% of the children it infects. Yet the fake autism claim has promoted MMR vaccine hesitancy.

In November 2024, the CDC (15) reported that cases and deaths are up, due to "inadequate immunization coverage:"

Worldwide, there were an estimated 10.3 million cases of measles in 2023, a 20% increase from 2022, according to new estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Inadequate immunization coverage globally is driving the surge in cases ...The new data show that an estimated 107,500 people, mostly children younger than 5 years of age, died due to measles in 2023... far too many children are still dying from this preventable disease. CDC (2024)(15)

This is the unsafe side of NOT vaccinating, hesitancy harms lives. I, as a child was afflicted with measles and suffered serious complications. Back in the early 1960s, there was no vaccine available. Nowadays there is no excuse to risk a child's life due to fake science and false anti-vax information.

The measles vaccine itself may provoke fever, leading to febrile seizures without serious long-term effects in 1 out of every 4,000 children. One in 40,000 subjects may suffer from immune thrombocytopenic purpura, a coagulation disorder that isn't life-threatening either.

The MMR vaccine's pros outweigh its cons!

Chickenpox

Vaccination prevents over 100 deaths, 3.5 million cases, and 9,000 hospitalizations in the US each year. Its side effects are negligible, a mild rash, a light fever, or a sore arm from the shot.

DTP vaccine

DTP is the most used vaccine in the world. It prevents three deadly diseases: Diphtheria, tetanus (which kills one in ten of those it afflicts), and pertussis or whooping cough, which kills 300,000 children every year.

Its safety has been questioned by several studies. One published in 2017 found that DTP vaccination in Africa "was associated with 5-fold higher mortality than being unvaccinated suggest[ing] that DTP vaccine may kill more children from other causes than it saves from diphtheria, tetanus or pertussis." (10) However, a more recent randomized study found that "We did not find that early-DTP was associated with increased female mortality as found in a previous study." (13)

Interestingly, most of the evidence against the DPT vaccine was generated by only one group of researchers and those "studies had significant methodological limitations" (11). These studies have been criticized for not being controlled randomized tests and therefore "judged to be at high risk of bias." (12)

So, feel reassured, that vaccines are safe and monitored by health authorities. They are subjected to intense safety scrutiny by the scientific community.

Vaccines Are Safe

Immunizations have side effects, but these are generally mild and not life-threatening. Only very rarely does a vaccination end in death. They have saved millions of lives and prevented pain, disease, and anguish.