Religion and politics are no longer the only taboo subjects at backyard barbeques. The topic of vaccines and vaccinations can trigger strong, and often opposing viewpoints for many people. It’s also fair to say there’s a lot of misinformation out there about even some of the most common and well-known types of vaccinations. And if there’s one thing we like doing here, its dispelling myths – with SCIENCE. We spoke to our immunology expert, Daniel Layton, to get the low down on this viral topic.
1. Vaccines cause autism – MYTH
Right off the bat we’re going for the most divisive myth, and it’s not because we want to upset anyone, it’s just that we know that we know what we’re talking about. We are Australia’s national science agency after all!
Here’s a bit of background info for this one: 20 years ago a former British doctor had an article published that falsely linked the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine to autism. The paper was retracted and the former doctor has his medical licence revoked, but unfortunately the myth persisted and it’s still endangering people’s lives today.
Since then a number of high quality studies have compared the health of large numbers of vaccinated and unvaccinated children. The largest of these included 537,303 children born in Denmark and found that unvaccinated children were just as likely to develop autism as vaccinated children. When the results of this study were combined with the results of nine other studies to include medical information from nearly 1.5 million children living all around the world, researchers confirmed that vaccination does not cause autism.
2. The flu vaccine can give me the flu – MYTH
Nah, we’ve all heard this one. Maybe you’ve even said it yourself?! Don’t worry, this is a safe space and we don’t judge! But it’s simply not true. In Australia if you’re getting the flu vaccine (and yes, you do need to get it every year because the virus changes so the vaccine is updated to protect you from the worst strain) you’re getting jabbed with a ‘completely killed vaccine’. It doesn’t contain a live virus so it cannot cause an infection.
3. If everyone else is vaccinated, I don’t need to be – MYTH
Vaccines can limit the amount of a virus in the community and when enough people are vaccinated against a disease (measles or whooping cough for example) the entire community is less likely to get the disease. So to keep this community protection – known as herd immunity – going, and help protect people who can’t get vaccinated (babies, pregnant women and people with immune deficiencies or recovering from cancer) we all need to do our part and keep those vaccination levels up. Eventually, the disease can become rare — and sometimes, it’s wiped out altogether, like small pox, for instance. Hooray!
4. Vaccines weaken your immune system – MYTH
Short answer: No, they don’t.
Long answer: No, they don’t, and it’s actually the opposite that’s true. Vaccines strengthen your immune system by stimulating your own natural defence mechanisms that in turn protect you from specific diseases. For some vaccines this immune strengthening can last for decades.
5. Vaccines are not proven to prevent the flu – MYTH
Wrong! The flu vaccine has been shown to protect against 60% of confirmed influenza infections (as opposed to a bad cold, which can seem very similar) and this can be even higher in children.
Influenza is a virus that just keeps on giving….in a bad way. Influenza is responsible for over 10,000 hospital visits and more than 1,000 deaths in Australia each year. In fact 2017 was the worst year on record with over 220,000 cases of influenza reported – not to mention the three to five million cases of influenza globally each year. So it’s really important that you make the time to get your shot!
Light us up!
You might be wondering why we’re even talking to you about this – it’s a great question, and thank you for asking! Other than the fact that we love talking about science (duh) and busting myths, we’re actually hanging out at Vivid Sydney right now. We’re showcasing an intimate view of viral and bacterial structures and we want you to come by and check it out, if that’s your thing. Even if it’s not come by and say hello anyway, our scientists are super friendly. Lock it in, and we’ll see you tonight, or any night up until 16 June!
7th June 2018 at 3:29 pm
I find it impossible with our current technologies to know “exactly” what vaccines can do past the obvious. We don’t have the technology to know the possible side effects…maybe in 100 years. What we get told in medicine as kids, is now the reverse in a lot of cases now This is such the progression of medicine. The fact is, overall vaccines have been good but we have to realize that there are also millions of vaccine damaged human beings out there. This is what gets understated, that there are risks as with walking across a street or driving a car. We get told vaccines are safe verse the truth…that there are risks in anything including vaccines.
7th June 2018 at 1:41 pm
This is a very good, useful article.
And to Rebecca: you are right, there are a lot of rumors and misinformation, but the first five chosen by the authors are really “myths”, i.e. the stories having some background and considered by more or less intelligent people, while most of the rest rumors are quite silly (to say the least) and circulated by spammers and people with vicious agenda.
7th June 2018 at 1:28 pm
I agree with Rebecca, and I think the CSIRO work with the pharmaceutical companies to undermine the real truth. The only thing that is making people sick is eating poor diets, and living unhealthy lifestyles. Why are there still so many children/babies suffering after receiving vaccines? Why is the natural immunity becoming weaker? There are many questions and doubts still there because much of the data from research is hidden, and I be CSIRO cannot even access all of it. And still there is no real proof they work, they do not and have not studied long term health of unvaccinated children or adults. My 82 year old mum refuses to receive the flu virus and among her friends is the only one that does not get the flu! As a vegan I do not want to put anything in my body that uses animal products too.
7th June 2018 at 1:12 pm
Why are we so terrified of getting sick? Why are we so scared of pain? I have just recovered from the flu in five days. I am 56 years old and I haven’t had it for years but strayed severely from my normally vegan diet to one of someones half emptied sugared yoghurt and a chocolate last thursday, a week today when i left my lunch at home and had not had breakfast. I also had been reflecting more seriously upon some eating and emotional addictions that I have been grappling with.
The day came and the choice made. The next day I felt not so good, that night I knew i was in for it. Some lurgy was out to get me and I knew i just had to hang on and most importantly LEARN from the ride. I stopped all addictions, work and food except vegetable soups, miso etc for three days while my sinuses exploded in headaches that were pretty tough. I was a little sore here and there but really it was mostly the headaches at night that required me to breath into them, dispersing the muck as best I could and all the while contemplating, reflecting etc on the issues that were causing my illness – my addictions and the effects of these on my relationship especially.
By the monday the headaches were 80% gone, On the wednesday I fasted completely to help things along emotionally and physically. That day and night I experienced some emotional lightbulb moments which made sense of my life-long addictions and led to my emotionally feeling some childhood rage and pain about how well my family covered over our pain by insisting upon the addictions busyness ie self- sacrifice and food.
This work is not yet complete but I am however in a much closer state to really open up fully to the experiencing of the suppressed memories when I am ready to go again or next time i get triggered.
Sickness is always caiused by addictions, emotional, physical and/or spiritual
Avoiding the pain via medications , addictions etc just means that the pain gets more suppressed and our body has to find new ways to release it. This is why cancer is so prevalent.
We need pain to teach us what our conscious mind does not want to hear.
Listening to your emotions and heeding your bodies message is a way to be pain free!
Yippee!
7th June 2018 at 1:09 pm
The other myth is that sanitation not vaccination is the reason why life expectancy has increased so much