Vaccination: The concerns of vaccination opponents in the fact check

Christiane Fux studied journalism and psychology in Hamburg. The experienced medical editor has been writing magazine articles, news and factual texts on all conceivable health topics since 2001. In addition to her work for, Christiane Fux is also active in prose. Her first crime novel was published in 2012, and she also writes, designs and publishes her own crime plays.

More posts by Christiane Fux All content is checked by medical journalists.

Vaccinations can prevent people from contracting dangerous diseases. However, skeptics fear that the vaccinations do more harm than good. This is why some people are less willing to have themselves and their children vaccinated. Read the fact check to see what is true of the fears of those who oppose the vaccination.

The World Health Organization (WHO) counts the lack of vaccination readiness to be one of the ten greatest global health threats. But those who do not have themselves or their children vaccinated are mainly concerned about possible risks. Experts such as physicians from the Robert Koch Institute have put the most important ones under the microscope.

"In the past, teething troubles were survived well"

It is true that infectious diseases such as measles, rubella, mumps and whooping cough usually heal without consequences. But that does not mean that such "teething troubles" are harmless.

The best example is measles: One in 1,000 children who contract measles develops an inflammation of the brain, the so-called measles encephalitis. It often causes permanent brain damage or is even fatal. It can occur after a vaccination, but 1000 times less often than after a measles infection.

Other "teething troubles" are also dangerous: Mumps can make the patient deaf and destroy the fertility of young men. If a pregnant woman gets rubella, the unborn child can be harmed.

"You can get sick despite being vaccinated"

That's right: no vaccination protects one hundred percent. Nevertheless, the effort is worth it. Because vaccinations reduce the likelihood of being infected. If you fall ill despite being vaccinated, the disease is often much milder. This also applies if a booster vaccination was not carried out in time or the immune protection has not yet been fully developed.

By the way: Even those who have suffered an infectious disease are not 100 percent protected. Tetanus, diphtheria or whooping cough can affect you several times in your life. There are even some known cases where a person got measles twice.

"Vaccinations can cause diseases that they are supposed to protect against"

In addition to redness and swelling at the injection site, fever or fatigue also occur relatively frequently after vaccinations. However, this is a reaction of the immune system to the vaccination and not a sign of illness.

Most vaccines today only contain killed pathogens or only typical components of the pathogen. Live vaccines are only given in some cases. They stimulate the immune system with weakened pathogens. Then signs of illness can actually appear.

For example, there have been cases of polio after oral vaccinations. This is no longer possible today because live vaccines are no longer used for polio.

It is different with measles vaccination, which is a live vaccine. Around five percent of those vaccinated develop so-called vaccine grains with skin rashes. But middle ear infections and pneumonia, from which measles infected people often suffer, are not observed after vaccination. Measles encephalitis - a dreaded meningitis - is an absolute rarity after vaccination: it affects about one in a million people who are vaccinated. In a real measles infection, every thousandth child is affected.

"Unvaccinated children are healthier"

Vaccinations are only available against a handful of diseases. The immune system of vaccinated children therefore has to deal with pathogens just as much as that of unvaccinated children. In addition, every vaccination is also a training unit for the immune system.

However, some parents report that their children go through a development spurt after an illness. There is no evidence that unvaccinated people develop better or get sick less often than vaccinated people. What is certain, however, is that serious illnesses and complications can severely set back a child's development. Permanent damage and even death can also result from infections, which some parents consider harmless.

"My baby is protected by breast milk"

There are actually antibodies in breast milk. Together with the antibodies that the child received in the womb, they protect the newborn. But this so-called "nest protection" breaks down quickly as soon as the mother stops breastfeeding.

In addition, it is not as strong as the protection that the immune system itself builds up later. This is especially true for premature babies. The child is not protected against diseases against which the mother herself has no immune protection. This even applies to some infections the mother has experienced, such as whooping cough.

"Vaccinated mothers give their babies less immune protection"

This is actually the case with measles, mumps, and rubella. The vaccinations stimulate the mother's immune system less than an infection. Doctors are already vaccinating babies against these diseases. But there is also the reverse case: Children of vaccinated mothers are protected against diphtheria. In contrast, there is no evidence of protection against diphtheria pathogens in children of mothers who have been infected themselves.

"Early vaccinations are risky"

Early vaccinations are important in many cases. Because some infections are much more difficult for infants than older children. This applies, for example, to whooping cough, which is associated with pneumonia or respiratory arrest in every fourth baby under six months. That is why you vaccinate here after the completed second month of life.

In any case, infants tolerate vaccinations no less well than older children. However, premature babies are particularly observed after vaccinations in order to be able to react quickly in the event of complications. But they also need the early vaccinations because they are particularly at risk in the event of illness.

Many vaccinations, such as the combined vaccination against measles, mumps and rubella, are only given after the first year of life. This also applies to the vaccination against meningococci, which can provoke meningitis.

"Too many vaccinations overload the immune system"

It is correct: Today children receive more vaccinations than before. But modern vaccines contain significantly fewer antigens. Antigens are those components of the vaccine that stimulate the immune system and train for the respective pathogen. Today all vaccinations recommended for children contain 150 antigens combined. In the past, the whooping cough vaccine alone contained 3,000 antigens. This means that the immune system of children has less work to do than in the past due to vaccinations. Compared to the antigens that the immune system has to deal with every day, this is of no consequence.

"Multiple vaccines are risky"

Some parents shy away from multiple vaccines in particular. But even for these there is no evidence that they overload the immune system. Modern vaccination schemes are precisely tailored to the child's development and include the age at which children benefit most from which vaccination.

Multiple vaccines also save the children unnecessary stress. Instead of 20 individual injections, only about half are needed today to build up complete vaccination protection.

"The real risks of vaccinations are unknown."

One thing is certain: like all drugs, vaccines can also cause side effects. The problem is delicate in that the people who are vaccinated are healthy and still take some risk. But how high is this really?

In order to uncover complications caused by vaccinations, doctors are encouraged to report complaints that arise after vaccinations to the Paul Ehrlich Institute. This then investigates the cases.

A major problem in risk assessment is that symptoms can occur quite randomly after vaccination. Conversely, however, complications can also be overlooked, for example if they only occur after a delay.

Overall, the number of recognized, i.e. permanent, vaccine damage is very low with an average of 37 cases each year. In view of the many millions of vaccinations, that is very little. Even if the number of unreported cases is much higher, the risk for the individual vaccinated is extremely low.

It is therefore clear that the risk of serious complications from the diseases themselves is much higher than the risk of serious vaccination complications.

"The vaccination against hepatitis B is superfluous for children."

It is true that hepatitis B is usually transmitted through sex. If a baby does become infected (e.g. through contact with the blood or saliva of infected people), the disease is often very severe and chronic. That is why vaccination experts have decided to give children the vaccine against hepatitis B, along with the vaccine against tetanus, diphtheria, whooping cough, Haemophilus influenzae and polio. The children benefit from this at the latest when they grow up and become sexually active.

"Vaccinations promote allergies"

It is true that there is more vaccination today than in the past. And more children suffer from allergies. However, this parallel is not proof that vaccinations actually promote allergies. Rather, larger studies show that the opposite is more the case. For example, the number of small allergy sufferers also increased in the east after reunification. However, there was more vaccination there during the GDR era.

But there are also studies that seem to show the opposite. Researchers found that children of parents who refused vaccinations were less likely to develop allergic diseases such as asthma or hay fever. However, in many ways children's lifestyles differed from those in households that were more open to vaccination. For example, parents smoked less - and smoking can actually promote allergies in children.

"Vaccinations Can Cause Serious Disorders Like Autism"

Again and again there is speculation that vaccinations could favor various serious diseases. These include autism, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and even sudden infant death syndrome. Studies have so far been able to refute these hypotheses again and again.

The best-known example is that the measles-rubella-mumps vaccine was hypothesized by British doctor Andrew Wakefield to cause autism. In fact, the doctor had only examined this on twelve children. So many inconsistencies later emerged that the study was withdrawn and the doctor's license to practice medicine was revoked.

"Vaccines contain toxic chemicals"

In fact, some vaccines contain substances that can be toxic. Aluminum hydroxide strengthens the immune response, formaldehyde kills pathogens, mercury and phenol make the vaccine more durable. However, the concentrations of these substances are very low. They are below the limit values ​​above which they can harm people.

"Vaccines can contain pathogens such as HIV and BSE."

Proteins from blood donations are needed to make certain live vaccines more stable. Before they are used, however, they are systematically tested for HIV, hepatitis and other pathogens. In the further processing process, any pathogens that may have remained undetected are killed.

In the past, BSE was mainly transmitted to humans through the consumption of beef. Serums from calves, which are necessary for the production of some vaccines, therefore come from BSE-free New Zealand.

"Even some doctors are against vaccination"

There are very few doctors who are fundamentally against vaccination. Often, medical-scientific considerations play less of a role here than individual experiences or spiritual convictions. Even doctors who are more oriented towards alternative medicine rarely reject the vaccination. The German Central Association of Homeopathic Doctors expressly points out that the recommendations of the Standing Vaccination Commission (STIKO) have been carefully considered and take into account the current state of knowledge.

"Vaccinations are unnecessary because the others are vaccinated."

This attitude relates to the so-called herd protection. The more people vaccinated against a disease, the less often it occurs. And the lower the risk for unvaccinated people. However, it is precisely when you are tired of vaccinations that this protection crumbles. In Germany, too, there are frequent outbreaks of measles that occur because too few people are vaccinated. This particularly endangers the most vulnerable: still unvaccinated infants and people with immunodeficiency, for whom vaccinations only work poorly.

"The diseases that are vaccinated against no longer exist in Germany anyway"

Some infectious diseases have actually become very rare in this country, such as polio or diphtheria. However, examples from other countries show how quickly this can change if there is no longer sufficient vaccination. In the successor states of the USSR, for example, over 150,000 people fell ill with diphtheria in the 1990s as a result of falling vaccination rates. More than 6,000 died from it.

"Vaccination is superfluous because today you have antibiotics"

Many of the diseases that are vaccinated against are viral diseases that antibiotics do not help. These include measles, rubella, chicken pox, and mumps. Bacterial infections such as tetanus, meningitis and whooping cough are often difficult to treat despite antibiotics and can still lead to death today.

"It has never been proven that vaccinations work"

The fact is: A vaccine is only approved in Germany if it has been proven that it actually works. The manufacturer must provide evidence in strict scientific studies. Within the EU, the results are checked under the direction of the European Medicines Agency EMEA. In Germany this is done by the Paul Ehrlich Institute.

The practical test is probably even more important. With the routine introduction of vaccines, many diseases have been successfully suppressed. Take poliomyelitis, for example: While almost 4,700 children in the Federal Republic of Germany suffered from it in 1961, after the introduction of oral vaccination in 1965, the number was less than 50.

In the meantime, the disease has almost disappeared in this country. Thanks to vaccinations, smallpox can even be eradicated worldwide. For measles, which occasionally can cause severe brain damage or even be fatal, this goal has not yet been achieved. Even in Germany, not enough people are vaccinated against measles. That's why they keep flaring up.

"That the pathogens exist has never been proven"

Today, even tiny pathogens can not only be detected, but even seen: State-of-the-art electron microscopes provide detailed images of viruses, bacteria and fungi. In many cases, you even know their blueprints down to the last gene.

In addition, vaccines are produced on the basis of weakened and dead pathogens or their molecular components.With their help, the immune system learns to recognize the special germ and is trained to fight it. So without a pathogen there is no vaccine.

"The fact that there are fewer sick people is due to improved hygiene and nutrition - not to the vaccinations"

Improved hygiene and clean drinking water can prevent many infections - typhoid, cholera and hepatitis A, for example. Nowadays you only protect yourself against these with a vaccination when traveling to countries with poor hygiene standards. Other pathogens are transmitted purely from person to person, such as measles and polioviruses. Better hygienic conditions hardly protect here.

Better nutrition for the population also undoubtedly keeps disease at bay. Those who are better nourished can cope with an infection better, but can still become infected. For example, 90 percent of those who have not been vaccinated are still infected when they come into contact with measles.

"Vaccinations only fill the coffers of the pharmaceutical industry."

It goes without saying that vaccine manufacturers want to earn money with their products. Compared to other medicines, the cake is on the small side with vaccines. Of the almost 200 billion euros that the statutory health insurance (GKV) spent in 2017, 37.7 billion euros went to pharmaceuticals, but only 1.4 billion euros to vaccines.

The development of drugs for the chronically ill is particularly worthwhile - because patients have to take them for many years. However, vaccinations are only required at longer intervals, if at all.

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