Injecting a live virus to prevent your child from getting sick from that very same virus sounds kind of scary, but researchers have spent a significant amount of time testing the safety and efficacy of vaccines, determining that as a broad rule even live vaccines aren’t going to make people sick. These types of vaccines contain weak yet living versions of the disease in question unlike the actual disease you’d encounter in the wild, though, the amount present in the vaccine is very small-small enough that your children’s immune systems can typically handle it without an issue. In the vast majority of cases kids can’t even contract illnesses from live, attenuated vaccines. Because these vaccines don’t have whole, live antigens, it’s impossible that they’d be able to cause those illnesses.
Other vaccines only contain specific parts of the germ in question, such as its protein, sugar, or the casing around it, says Dr. Instead they use the dead germ to teach your child’s immune system to mount a response so if they did encounter the real thing, they’d be better at fighting it off, according to Dr. Some vaccines (such as for polio) are comprised of inactivated or “killed” antigens (parts of germs that cause the body’s immune system to build disease-fighting antibodies), according to the CDC. In most cases it’s not even biologically possible. Is it possible for vaccines to make someone sick with the illness they’re supposed to prevent?Īlmost never, says Dr. But you’re probably still all about seat belts for your child because the added safety just in case is very much worth it. “Seat belts aren’t 100 percent effective in preventing death in a car accident,” he tells SELF. Think of vaccines as if they were seat belts, Aaron Milstone, M.D., pediatric epidemiologist and associate professor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, suggests. adults get the flu vaccine each year).Īnd very few things in life are 100 percent effective, especially when it comes to health and safety, but that doesn’t mean they’re worthless. That’s even if only 43 percent of the population gets it (which is roughly how many U.S.
A 2018 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America report showed that even if the influenza vaccine is only 20 percent effective, compared to no vaccine it could still prevent around 21 million infections or illnesses, 130,000 hospitalizations, and 62,000 deaths. That may not sound like much, but it can make a huge impact. The influenza (flu) vaccine, for example, was about 40 percent effective in the 2016 to 20 to 2018 flu seasons. (Apologies if this vaccine wasn’t available to you when you were a kid.)Įven vaccines that aren’t as effective are still crucial for keeping you and your family safe. Likewise getting both doses of the varicella vaccine for chicken pox (which is administered on the same schedule as the MMR vaccine) is estimated to be 98 percent effective at preventing any form of chicken pox and 100 percent effective against severe chicken pox.
When administered according to schedule (the first dose between 12 and 15 months and a second at four through six years old), MMR vaccines are about 97 percent effective against measles, 88 percent effective against mumps, and at least 97 percent effective against rubella, according to the CDC.
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