Despite what some say about vaccines, doctors want patients and parents to be aware that they are more helpful than risky.
Vaccines work by protecting people from illnesses. And these vaccines are chosen after rigorous testing and evaluation. These vaccines not only protect people from potentially life-threatening illnesses, but protect those around them who may not have been vaccinated or whose vaccines have become ineffective.
And as rumors continue to swirl around the harm of vaccines, doctors in Franklin County are continuing to try and dispel the myths.
“The focus is really to make sure that the public are aware of how significantly health improving and life-changing immunizations are,” said Dr. Kevin O’Callaghan, neonatal hospitalist and medical director of the newborn nursery at Baystate Franklin.
“We really want to remind people these are significant diseases that have serious impacts, up to and including death,” O’Callaghan said.
Currently, pediatricians vaccinate children for 14 deadly or debilitating illnesses — chickenpox, diptheria, Hib (haemophilus influenza type B), Hepatitis A and B, influenza, measles, mumps, pertussis, polio, pneumococcal, rotavirus, rubella and tetanus. According to O’Callaghan, these vaccines are chosen through rigorous research and testing from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“This list is revised and reviewed every year by the CDC,” O’Callaghan said. “They decide, based on the best evidence available, how many doses and when they happen.”
And these vaccinations help prevent those vaccinated from developing life-threatening illnesses, while also protecting those around them who may be able to acquire the illness.
O’Callaghan admitted that there are risks to getting vaccines.
“The 14 vaccines we have on schedule have potential side effects,” he said. “Every medical intervention we do has them, but we have studied them and found that the risks are low.”
O’Callaghan said one rumor that is not true is that Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) vaccines cause autism.
“The autism view stems from a report that made some claims about MMR vaccines and autism,” O’Callaghan said. “That study was found to be partly fabricated, and it was removed from the journal.
“There have been numerous large studies in many countries finding zero connection to vaccines and autism. So we have found that from the point of autism there is absolutely no risk to being vaccinated and having autism,” he said.
O’Callaghan said the vaccine schedule for children parallels with the development of autism symptoms, which helps to perpetuate the connection between the two. But according to him, that is as far as the connection goes.
“Correlation does not mean causation,” O’Callaghan said.