Vaccine misinformation

To date, vaccines have saved 154 million lives over the last 50 years, according to a landmark study by the World Health Organization and published in The Lancet. This makes vaccines the single greatest health prevention measure, able to counter numerous diseases before they can have any negative effect on an individual. The study further found that because of vaccines, an average of 66 healthy years were obtained, adding up to a sum of 10.2 billion healthy years gained throughout the last 50 years. It has also led to the near elimination of polio, saving more than 20 million people from paralyzation.

There has been great effort to make vaccination accessible to all. The Expanded Programme on Immunization (now the Essential Programme on Immunization), founded in 1974 by the World Health Assembly, currently offers universal recommendations for vaccinating against 13 diseases and another 17 context-dependent suggestions against 17 diseases. The reach of vaccines has been massively more widespread since the start of EPI, where less than 5% of infants were able to get vaccinated. Now, 84% of infants are safe. UNICEF has furthered this coverage, buying 2 million vaccines every year and allocating them globally.

Yet, social media and anti-vaccine groups have led to vaccine hesitancy. Through misinformation, concerns about the safety of using vaccines have spread faster than the interventions themselves, according to a study by the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Especially since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, vaccine misinformation extends to many diseases, including: HPV, childhood vaccines, COVID-19, and the flu. Unfortunately, the mass misinformation has overpowered more reliable sources.

Common vaccine myths include:

• Too many vaccines are able to overpower your immune system

• Too many vaccines too quickly

• MMR vaccines lead to autism

• HPV vaccines heighten risks of autoimmune diseases

• Influenza vaccines taken during early pregnancy lead to more risk of miscarriage

• 
  

…and none of them are backed by sufficient, reliable information.

References

Garett, Renee, and Sean D. Young. "Online Misinformation and Vaccine Hesitancy." Translational Behavioral Medicine, vol. 11, no. 12, 16 Sept. 2021, pp. 2194-99, https://doi.org/10.1093/tbm/ibab128.

Geoghegan, Sarah, et al. "Vaccine Safety: Myths and Misinformation." Frontiers in Microbiology, vol. 11, 17 Mar. 2020, https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2020.00372.

"Global immunization efforts have saved at least 154 million lives over the past 50 years." World Health Organization, 24 Apr. 2024, www.who.int/news/item/24-04-2024-global-immunization-efforts-have-saved-at-least-154-million-lives-over-the-past-50-years/.

"Vaccine Misinformation Outpaces Efforts to Counter It." Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, 16 Jan. 2024, www.publichealth.columbia.edu/news/vaccine-misinformation-outpaces-efforts-counter-it.

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