Is the childhood vaccine schedule really safe?

Overall, the vaccine schedule has expanded by 1-2 vaccines per decade since the 1980s. This slow, methodical, scientific advance of immunization recommendations stands in stark contrast to concerns that vaccines are constantly being capriciously added to the schedule.

Babies are subjected to more challenges to their immune system at birth than they will be in the entire immunization schedule. Keep in mind that the amount of any ingredient in vaccines is very small–smaller than what a child will encounter naturally through living and breathing and eating, and as this study of aluminum in vaccines shows, they do not accumulate in a child’s body to toxic levels.

Because millions and millions of children have followed the vaccine schedule, scientists have been able to conduct studies showing that the schedule is safe.

But are vaccines unavoidably harmful? In 2011, the Supreme Court decided a case called Bruesewitz v. Wyeth. This case started when the parents of a girl who was thought to have serious side effects from a vaccine sued the company that made the vaccine. Her parents believed that the vaccine was poorly designed, and that’s what caused her problems.

However, the Supreme Court agreed with the vaccine manufacturer. They said that the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act protects vaccine makers from being sued if a vaccine causes injuries or death as long as the side effects are unavoidable and the vaccine is made and labeled correctly. They explained that the law stops any lawsuits that claim a vaccine’s design is defective.

The court didn’t say that all vaccines are “unavoidably unsafe.” The ruling was just about whether the parents could sue under this specific law. The phrase “unavoidably unsafe” was mentioned in the court’s discussion, but it relates to the terms set by the law, not a general statement about vaccines.