Oregon Partnership to Immunize Children (OPIC)

Vaccine Safety

A Letter to Parents from the OPIC Chair about Vaccine Safety

January 1, 2009

Dear Parents:
OPIC's Vaccine Safety page provides links to a variety of organizations that provide reliable, science-based immunization information. No vaccine is 100% effective; no vaccine is 100% safe. As with any medicine, there are very small risks of serious problems after getting a vaccine. However the risks from a vaccine are much smaller than the risks from the diseases if people stopped using the vaccine.

Before vaccines became widely used, infectious diseases killed thousands of children and adults each year in the United States. Most parents today have not seen a child paralyzed by polio, choking to death from diphtheria, or living with brain damage as a result of measles.

Immunizations are one of the most important ways children and adolescents can be protected against serious vaccine-preventable diseases. Without immunizations, the diseases we are now protected against could easily return to infect, disable and even kill many infants, children and adults. Making sure that your child or teen is up-to-date on age-appropriate immunizations is an effective way of preventing many serious infectious diseases in your child, family and the community.

Sincerely,

Immunization Action Coalition (IAC)

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

The National Network for Immunization Information (NNII)

Parents of Kids with Infections Diseases (PKIDS)

The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP):

• How Vaccines are Made
  
• Facts about Childhood Vaccines
  
• Vaccine Q&A

American Academy of PediatricsVaccines and Autism-In the News (click on parents' page)