To put it politely, the anti-vaccine movement was started by some very…misinformed people. To put it honestly, they’re ignorant and they’re wrong.
If you’ve heard any of these vaccine myths, please don’t believe them.
Too many vaccines weakens the immune system
If you had the time, you could get 100,000 vaccines at once and walk away perfectly healthy; probably healthier.
The truth is, vaccines are designed to improve your immune systems response to certain diseases and infections. Without the aid of a vaccine, it’s likely that your immune system would fail to do its job if you ever contracted something serious.
I don’t need to be vaccinated if everyone else is
Just because everyone you know is vaccinated, it doesn’t mean you couldn’t catch a virus from a stranger. Don’t put yourself at risk.
There aren’t any major diseases I need to protect myself against
Major diseases like polio or small pox aren’t a big issue anymore because of vaccines. Not getting vaccinated for major diseases and viruses could instigate a return of an old plague.
Vaccines cause Autism
This myth has been circulating for over seven years, and it’s primarily due to a misinterpretation of a scientific study done on the MMR vaccine.
The MMR vaccine protects against measles, mumps and rubella, and is generally administered to infants after their first year. The problem with the study was that autistic behavior usually manifests itself during the same time the vaccine is given, leading one doctor to conclude that it was the vaccine that caused autism in some cases.
The myth has been fully debunked by the medical community and should never again be repeated as fact.
Vaccines give you the disease they’re meant to prevent
Vaccines contain harmless versions of deadly diseases, and only some vaccines–like MMR and chicken pox vaccinations–are reported to induce symptoms, but any sign of the illness is gone within days, and is much less severe than the actual disease.
What vaccine myths have you heard? We’ll be sure to debunk them in our next post.