Addressing parents concerns

Addressing Parental Objections to Vaccinations
Parents may object to some or all vaccines for a variety of reasons. Here are some of the most common objections
and proposed responses you can use when discussing vaccination issues with parents and others.
Objection: Vaccines are not safe.
Response: Vaccines are much safer for children than getting the diseases they prevent. But, like all
medications, vaccines carry some risk.The most common side effects are pain, redness or tenderness at the
injection site. Some vaccines can cause low fever, fussiness or tiredness; these side effects are usually mild and
pass quickly. More severe side effects are very rare. Remember, the benefits of vaccines – a healthy, protected
child – far outweigh the potential risks.
[Add information specific to the vaccine(s) the parent is most concerned about and offer the VIS]
Objection: Vaccines cause autism and/or other diseases.
Response: Many studies, both inside and outside the U.S., have failed to show any link between vaccines
and autism or an increased risk of diabetes, arthritis or other diseases.
For example, some people have focused on a preservative that was once used in all childhood vaccines and
claimed that it caused autism. In fact, several scientific studies have proved this is not so. In any case, the
preservative isn’t in any routinely recommended childhood vaccines anymore, with the exception of the
influenza vaccine.
Objection: Vaccines don’t work.
Response: Before vaccines were available, thousands of babies died or were permanently harmed each year
from illnesses like whooping cough, diphtheria, smallpox and measles.This doesn’t happen now because the
vaccines babies receive work so well.
Here’s an example of how well they work. Until the late 1980s, about 15,000 people in the U.S. used to get
a certain type of bacterial meningitis each year and as many as 500 of them would die.Vaccines that protect
against this type of bacteria, called Hib, became available in 1990 and now there are fewer than 50 cases each
year and very few deaths overall.
Objection: Infants are too young to be vaccinated.
Response: On the contrary, infancy is the most important time to be vaccinated because – from birth
through age 2 – babies are most vulnerable to severe consequences – even death – from these diseases.
The vaccine schedule that all health care providers try to follow is designed as the best way to get babies
vaccinated as young as possible against more than a dozen diseases.The established spacing of the vaccines
matches when babies can respond to the vaccines and how much time needs to occur in between doses for
optimal protection.
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Addressing Parental Objections to Vaccinations
Objection: It’s better to be naturally infected than vaccinated.
Response: In some cases, the protection from vaccines (like Hib, pneumococcal and tetanus) is actually
better than from natural infection. But the real issue is the risk to your child if he/she gets a disease. For
example, Hib infection can cause mental retardation, hepatitis B can cause liver failure, mumps can cause
deafness, and chickenpox can cause pneumonia. Furthermore, the potential side effects from vaccines are
generally much milder than any complications caused by the disease.
Objection: My child can’t handle so many vaccines in a short period.
Response: Babies encounter and manage a huge number of challenges to their immune systems. From birth
on, babies deal with thousands of bacteria living on their skin and in their nose, throat and intestinal tract.
Their bodies have billions of immune cells that keep these bacteria in check.Vaccines are just a small part of
what babies encounter every day, but they provide essential protection against more than a dozen diseases to
help babies get through the most vulnerable period of their lives.
Objection: My child is getting too many shots in one visit.
Response: Even though it may be hard to see your baby get so many injections, the vaccines can be given
safely at the same time. Giving your child all of his/her shots at one time according to the vaccine schedule
helps make sure that he/she is protected against more than a dozen diseases during the most vulnerable
period.
Objection: Vaccines aren’t necessary anymore.
Response: It may seem that way since certain diseases are not very common today, but vaccines are very
necessary. If we stop vaccinating, we will start to see these diseases again.The bacteria and viruses that cause
measles, mumps, rubella and Hib disease, for example, still circulate in this country, but vaccinated children
are protected against them. Other diseases, like polio, have virtually been eliminated in this country, but given
the amount of international travel today, it would be very easy for polio to be brought back into our country
and, if children were not protected, for it to spread again.
Objection: Vaccines cause the disease they are designed to prevent.
Response: The vaccines that contain inactivated – or killed – viruses or bacteria (like tetanus or polio)
cannot cause the disease they protect against.Vaccines that contain live, but weakened viruses (like
chickenpox and measles) can, in very rare cases, cause a mild form of the disease.These cases usually pass
more quickly and with much less risk than if your child got a full blown case of the disease.
Objection: I can’t afford all these vaccines.
Response: There are programs in place to make sure that children not covered by Medicaid or private
insurance receive all recommended vaccinations for little or no cost. For example,VFC, or Vaccines for
Children, provides for children to receive vaccines as part of routine care. SCHIP, or State Children’s Health
Insurance Program, gives states permission to offer health insurance for children who are not already insured,
and covers all recommended immunizations.
[If you do not offer vaccinations under VFC or SCHIP, direct parents and underinsured children to the nearest
federally qualified health center.]
Portions adapted from “Vaccine Concerns” available from the Immunization Action Coalition. For more information, go to
http://www.immunize.org/catg.d/4038myth.pdf