IMMUNIZATION INFORMATION CENTER

Protect Your Family. Protect Yourself. Protect Your Community

immunize-up-banner

Did you know?

andrew-wakefield-discredited

Fiction

Vaccines can cause autism.

Fact

Let’s be clear. The MMR vaccine DOES NOT cause autism, it never has. The only reason anyone started worrying about the possibility of the MMR vaccine causing autism is because in the 1990’s a British doctor published a research study that raised the possibility and terrified parents. But here’s the thing — his research was so full of mistakes and done so unethically that he lost his license to practice medicine. Since that time, his fake findings have been disproven over and over again by good research. Unfortunately, the actions of one corrupt individual have caused anxiety for many parents and left many children unimmunized and at risk.

influenza-infographic

Influenza kills more people in the United States than all other vaccine preventable diseases combined.

Fact courtesy of immunizeUSA.org

measles

Bad Guy Measles

Measles is a serious respiratory disease that causes a rash and fever. It is very contagious and in rare cases can be deadly. For some children, measles can lead to: pneumonia, lifelong brain damage, deafness, and even death. As many as one out of every 20 children with measles will get pneumonia, which is the most common cause of death from measles in young children. The measles vaccine is among the most effective vaccines—97% effective among those who have received the two recommended doses, and 93% effective among those who received only one dose.

Information courtesy of cdc.gov

Baby-Flexing

Fiction

Infant Immune systems can't handle so many vaccines.

Fact

Your baby's immune system is way tougher than you might think. Every day, your baby is exposed to thousands of germs — no matter how tidy your house is! Asking your baby's immune system to respond to even 11 shots at the same time would only use a tiny fraction of their immune system's capacity at that moment! Vaccines actually boost the immune system. Since any of the diseases they are targeting are most serious in babies and young children, it is important to get them done on time!

Pertussis

Bad Guy Pertussis

1 out of 4 of those with pertussis develop pneumonia. Pertussis is also commonly known as whooping cough. Alarmingly, only 2 in 10 U.S. adults are up-to-date on their whooping cough vaccination. Since 2010, between 15,000 and 50,000 cases of whooping cough are reported each year in the United States. Before the whooping cough vaccines were recommended for all infants, about 8,000 people in the United States died each year from whooping cough. Today, because of the vaccine, this number has dropped to fewer than 20 per year. Worldwide, there are an estimated 24.1 million cases of pertussis and about 160,700 deaths per year associated with it.

Fact courtesy of cdc.gov

Seatbelt

Vaccines save an estimated 42,000 lives every year in the U.S. alone. That's 3 times more than seat belts and child restraints combined.

Fact courtesy of immunizeUSA.org

chicken-pox

Bad Guy Chicken Pox (Varicella)

Chickenpox symptoms include itchiness, rash, blisters, fever, and a headache. Chickenpox spreads very easily, typically when a person touches or breathes in the virus particles. Chickenpox can spread 1 to 2 days before the infected person gets a rash all the way until all the blisters have formed scabs. Chicken pox is mild for many children, but not all. Each year, there are approximately 4 million cases of the chicken pox, around 10,600 hospitalizations, and 100 to 150 deaths.

Information courtesy of cdc.gov

Magnifying-glass

Fiction

Better hygiene and sanitation decrease infections, not vaccines.

Fact

Vaccines are more effective in decreasing infections. Have the improvements in sanitation and drinking water that began over a century ago made us all safer from infectious diseases? Absolutely. But it is good to remember that over the past 60 years, vaccines deserve the lion's share of the credit. For example, the measles vaccine came out in 1963 and by 1970, the rate of measles infections decreased by 95%—in no way do changes in hand washing and sanitation get the credit for that improvement. The vaccine works and it works GREAT!

mumps

Bad Guy Mumps

Each person infected with mumps will infect four to seven other people in a vulnerable or non-vaccinated community. From January to June 2018, there were 1,447 cases of the mumps reported to the CDC. Since the pre-vaccine era, there has been a more than 99% decrease in mumps cases in the United States, but mumps outbreaks can still occur in highly vaccinated U.S. communities—especially in close-contact settings such as schools and colleges.

Information courtesy of cdc.gov

Whooping-Cough-infographic

2 in 10 U.S. adults are up-to-date on their whooping cough vaccination.

Fact courtesy of immunizeUSA.org

baby-in-a-bubble

Fiction

Natural immunity is better than vaccine-acquired immunity.

Fact

That sounds nice in theory. In reality, why would you want your child to have a 1 in 500 chance of dying if they get the measles when you could protect them with a vaccine that has been tested for over 50 years and found safe? In fact, the chance of having a severe allergic reaction to an MMR vaccine is less than 1 in a million. Every parent wants to make the safest choice for their child, that choice is clear — vaccinate!

Rotavirus

Bad Guy Rotavirus

Each year, the rotavirus vaccine prevents an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 hospitalizations among U.S. infants and young children. About 9 out of 10 children who get the vaccine will be protected from severe rotavirus illness. Symptoms of Rotavirus include severe watery diarrhea, vomiting, fever, and abdominal pain.

Information courtesy of cdc.gov

Jenga

Fiction

Vaccinations aren't worth the risk.

Fact

We have been using vaccines for many decades and thousands of studies have been done to look at their safety and how well they work. There is no longer any debate among credible scientists who study vaccinations about their safety or how important they are to community health. When you are making important decisions about your family's health, it is important to go to the experts and not everyone does that. Stories and opinions are not the same thing as science — choose wisely.

Influenza

Bad Guy Influenza

Influenza kills more people in the United States than all other vaccine preventable diseases combined. The CDC reports 178 flu-related deaths in children alone during 2017-2018. The CDC estimates that influenza has resulted in between 9.2 million and 35.6 million illnesses, between 140,000 and 710,000 hospitalizations, and between 12,000 and 56,000 deaths annually since 2010.

Information courtesy of cdc.gov

90-percent

A 2018 Research America study found that 90% of people asked said that parents put their communities at risk when they fail to vaccinate their children.

Fact courtesy of immunizeUSA.org

Safe-Sheild

Fiction

Vaccines are filled with unsafe toxins.

Fact

It is time to accept the fact that although formaldehyde, mercury and aluminum might sound worrisome, the truth is that your own body produces small quantities of formaldehyde, mercury is found in food, air and water AND many foods contain trace amounts of aluminum. Do you want to eat up big amounts of this stuff? No. But the amount of these materials in vaccines is tiny—really tiny, nowhere near the amount considered harmful. This is simply a pretty poor reason to risk serious illness in your child or other children by not vaccinating.

polio

Bad Guy Polio

Polio is a crippling and potentially fatal infectious disease. There is no cure, but there are safe and effective vaccines to help prevent it. Most people who get infected with poliovirus (about 72 out of 100) will not have any visible symptoms. About 1 out of 4 people with poliovirus infection will have flu-like symptoms that include sore throat, fever, tiredness, nausea, headache, and stomach pain.

Information courtesy of cdc.gov