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 The paper was retracted and the former doctor has his medical licence revoked, but unfortunately the myth persisted and it’s still endangering people’s lives today.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!
11th June 2018 at 12:50 pm
The CSIRO can hardly be objective about this subject, after all, they are part of the pharmaceutical/medical industrial complex, and therefore, their information posted here, cannot be relied upon to be free of bias, and to be accurate.
10th June 2018 at 6:13 pm
This is a follow-up to my own comment. With a little digging I discovered that the MMR-vs-Autism study the author is referring to in point 1 is this one (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12421889) … and yes, the study clearly concludes there is no link between the MMR vaccine and autism. But, dig a little bit, and you’ll discover that of the study’s 8 authors, 7 are either directly employed or have financial ties to Statens Serum Institut, Denmark’s largest for-profit vaccine manufacturer. The 8th author is employed by the US CDC.
When analysing the data, the authors have made an age adjustment that makes it possible for the study to show no causal effect, but without that age adjustment what the data actually shows is a statistically significant association between MMR vaccine and autism. In other words, their conclusion is not supported by their data.
You can read some insightful commentary on the study with the statistical slight-of-hand unmasked here (http://www.jpands.org/vol9no3/stott.pdf).
Yes, CSIRO is Australia’s national science agency, which makes this “trust us, we’re scientists” article all the more shameful.
8th June 2018 at 4:17 pm
Rebecca, if you do end up with a disease, you are are then a carrier and will spread it around.
8th June 2018 at 4:15 pm
Don’t Vacillate – Vaccinate
8th June 2018 at 11:30 am
Dear Steve,
With respect your response implies minimal regulatory control over Big Pharma-incorrect.
An injectable biotherapy, for example influenza vaccine , undergoes intensive quality control along the whole supply chain. Regulators e.g FDA & TGA , although Govt funded entities, follow a global Code/Good Manufacturing Practice which imposes strict requirements on the manufacturing process, pre-release batch testing and fill/packaging.
Re: Side-effects-pharmaceutical company are required to support a Pharmacovigilance department. This area is taken so seriously that employees are required to advise the department of potential adverse events that were reported to them either directly or second hand within 24 hours.
I had an experience with a veterinary vaccine reported to me at a conference. I forwarded the details to the manufacturer’s Quality Assurance group. The response was re-safety testing (as per batch pre-release) the vaccine batch.