What harms do vaccines do?
“There can be side effects from each individual vaccine,” says Schuchat. “The most common side effect is pain or swelling at the site of injection. For each vaccine recommended, the CDC is required to provide a vaccine information statement to a parent or patient receiving one of the vaccines. It lists background information on benefits and risks. Most vaccines do not have serious adverse events associated with them. “But some do. For instance, the flu vaccine is made from eggs. People with egg allergies should not receive the flu vaccine because they can have a serious reaction. So there are questions doctors use to screen people before getting any vaccine to make sure they don’t have special risks. For the vast majority of childhood vaccines, there are very few of these. “There is a possibility — it is not yet clear — but with the meningococcal conjugate vaccine, there have been reports of Guillain-Barre syndrome. We do not yet know if this is a true vaccine-related risk. But if it i
