From government conspiracies to autism, vaccine outreach programs have been repeatedly called into suspicion. The long-circulating myth that vaccines cause autism, for example, resulted from research published in The Lancet, one of the world’s oldest and best known general medical journals, and while the author of that research was later found to have fabricated his results, the myth still lives on in popular imagination even as dozens of subsequent studies have proven vaccines to be safe. So what to parents need to know about vaccines, myths, and protecting kids from preventable diseases?
Vaccines: Myths & Truths
Dr. Linda Girgis, a family medical physician with one of the busiest practices in New Jersey, still sees a lot of parents questioning the safety and efficacy of recommended vaccinations, with a few familiar themes emerging. In this video, she addresses eight common myths about vaccines worrying parents today.
Looking for more information?
The internet can be a tricky place to navigate, and it is often difficult to tell what sources and studies are reputable and which are not. Once an inaccurate story is available online, it also is difficult to completely remove – even if it is proven to be entirely incorrect. If you are looking for more information about vaccines and the studies that have been done into their safety, here are some great places to start:
- The National Academies report on vaccine safety
- A report on the genetics of epilepsy and vaccines
- A study that combed through half a million kids who had the MMR vaccine to see if there were more neurological disorders among this population
- A study of all children born in Denmark between 1991 and 1998