Some parents question the safety of
vaccines and believes that their child are more likely to acquire the
infectious disease if they were vaccinated (4). A common misconception is that
the mild symptoms that resemble the disease they are protecting against is an
actual infection. When in fact they feel the body’s immune response to the
vaccine and not the disease itself (2). Also, no vaccine is 100% effective so
there is a chance that the body not make create a proper immunological response
to create memory to be protected (3).
A vaccine causing the complete disease
is extremely unlikely since most vaccines are inactivated vaccines or parts of
the pathogen, so it is not possible to contract the disease from these
vaccines. However, live attenuated vaccines may cause a mild case of the
disease. For example, the chickenpox vaccine may cause a rash to develop but
only a few spots. In the end it is not harmful and shows the vaccine is
functioning correctly. The only exception to this is the live vaccine polio
vaccine that has the chance to rarely mutate and cause an actual cause of
polio, for this reason it is no longer given in the US (1).
Want to learn more about these disease? Click here.
Resources:
- Allergy and Asthma Immunology. (2019, August 19). Vaccines: The Myths and the Facts: AAAAI. Retrieved May 07, 2020, from https://www.aaaai.org/conditions-and-treatments/library/allergy-library/vaccine-myth-fact
- Public Health, S. (2020, April 29). Vaccine Myths Debunked. Retrieved May 3, 2020, from https://www.publichealth.org/public-awareness/understanding-vaccines/vaccine-myths-debunked/
- World Health Organization. (2013, February 19). Six common misconceptions about immunization. Retrieved May 3, 2020, from https://www.who.int/vaccine_safety/initiative/detection/immunization_misconceptions/en/index2.html
- Ventola C.L (2016). Immunization in the United States: Recommendations, Barriers, and Measures to Improve Compliance: Part 1: Childhood Vaccinations. P & T: a peer-reviewed journal for formulary management, 41(7), 426–436
