Why do children get so many vaccines?

In an interview with Tucker Carlson, comedian Rob Schneider questions the need for childhood vaccines and the safety of the number of vaccines a child receives, framing his argument as a personal freedom issue.

The ideas of Too Many, Too Soon, toxins in vaccines, or even the idea that babies don’t have immune systems have all been addressed and debunked, and we would expect doctors not to fall for these tropes.

When a baby is born, they are immediately exposed to hundreds of thousands of antigens, the proteins that will challenge the baby’s immune system. While babies have a less developed immune system because they haven’t been exposed to the antigens, their ability to respond to challenges appears to be even better than that of adults.

A vaccine is simply a challenge to the immune system, the same way the disease would, but without the same risk of illness from the disease. The vaccines give the baby’s system a chance to recognize the disease-causing bugs and develop a plan to fight them before they encounter them in the wild. There is no evidence that the antigens a baby comes across daily or the comparative number of antigens in vaccines has any negative effect on a baby’s immune system.

Vaccines and their ingredients are tested both themselves and alongside other vaccines on the current schedule to ensure their safety and effectiveness when given together. The Institute of Medicine also reviewed the schedule. That committee found no safety concerns with adherence to the CDC-recommended vaccine schedule.

While the vaccine schedule has increased over the decades, so has the number of diseases we can prevent through vaccination and our scientific refinement of vaccines. In fact, the number of antigens in vaccines has decreased. While it is ultimately everyone’s personal choice to decide what’s best for them and their families, it is not informed consent if they make those decisions based on misinformation.