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.

Any given Thursday, you will find an actor breaking away from the mainstream and falling into an apparent trap of misinformation. In an interview with Joe Rogan, actor Dennis Quaid has been listening to the wrong stuff about COVID vaccines, claiming that they are increasing death and cancer rates.

Vaccines do not change our molecular structure or DNA. Dr. Paul Offit explains that it’s virtually impossible for DNA fragments in COVID mRNA vaccines to cause harm, such as cancers or autoimmune diseases. He outlines three protective mechanisms in our cells that prevent these DNA fragments from causing harm: the cytoplasm’s immune mechanisms and enzymes destroy foreign DNA; the DNA fragments lack a necessary signal to enter the nucleus; and they also lack the integrase enzyme needed to integrate into our DNA.

There is no scientific evidence or plausible mechanism suggesting that these DNA fragments would alter our genome to cause cancer. No evidence supports the claim that COVID-19 vaccines cause so-called turbo cancer or any other form of cancer.

The idea that these turbo cancers are a result of vaccines stems, in part, from claims that doctors are seeing huge spikes in cancer rates. However, even some of the most powerful carcinogens can take years to manifest in the form of cancer. While there has been an increase in early-onset cancers (not turbo cancer), this increase started in the early 1990s, well before the introduction of COVID vaccines.

Vaccines are not shown to cause cancer, and anti-vaxxers have yet to produce credible evidence the vaccine is causing cancers, turbo or otherwise.

A self-described #1 NYT Bestselling Author of Good Energy – The Surprising Connection between Metabolism and Limitless Health, Dr. Casey Means claims that newborns are unnecessarily given a hepatitis B vaccine, despite the fact that the disease is transmitted through sex or intravenous drug use, which infants are not exposed to, making the vaccination at birth unnecessary and unwarranted.

While Hep B is sexually transmitted, it’s not only sexually transmitted. It is also passed vertically from mother to infant during birth. The tweet claims that mothers are tested so babies aren’t at risk, yet 1,000 infants get Hep B in the US every year. Hep B infection can lead to chronic Hep B. Chronic Hep B can last a lifetime and lead to serious illnesses such as cirrhosis and liver cancer. The younger you are when you get hepatitis B, the more likely it will become chronic. There is no cure for hepatitis B, but vaccines can prevent it.

The widespread implementation of Hep B vaccination programs, including the birth dose, has led to significant reductions in Hep B worldwide. By immunizing newborns, the goal is to achieve a high vaccination coverage rate and create a population with decreased Hep B transmission, ultimately reducing the burden of related diseases.