We Are Swirling In a Sea of Vaccine Misinformation

Everywhere we look, in every type of media, the internet, and on social media, we see the proliferation of vaccine misinformation and laments about its growing influence on public health policy. It is truly mind-boggling. Isn’t it obvious that vaccines are among the most successful biomedical advances humans have ever developed? Doesn’t everyone recognize that thanks to vaccines we don’t have to worry about getting polio or smallpox anymore, that teenagers don’t have to die from meningococcemia, that babies no longer suffer the devastating effects of whooping cough (pertussis) or diphtheria?

Apparently not. Right now, the US government is engaged in an assault on vaccines, spreading misinformation and falsehoods to justify questioning vaccine safety and efficacy. Pretending to advance what they misleadingly call “gold standard science,” our once valued US federal public health agencies like the CDC, FDA, and NIH, are being subverted into wasting our time and money on fool’s errands that jeopardize our health.

Amidst all of this, one wonders whether there is any point in trying to correct the record and defend the obvious benefits of strong, mandatory vaccine programs. Is anyone listening? Will correcting vaccine misinformation make a difference? Those are the frustrating questions that we and many others involved in counteracting health and science misinformation are now forced to ask ourselves.

Fact-Checking Vaccine Misinformation Is Important

We have two answers. First, it is critical we refuse to be complacent. The flood of lies about vaccines can easily make us feel overwhelmed, but that is precisely what those who seek to erode one of the triumphs of modern medicine hope to achieve. No matter how much misinformation they throw at us, we must continue to fight back, lest people come to the erroneous conclusion that the misinformers are correct.

Second, the data show that  fact-checking is one effective way of counteracting misinformation. Although facts don’t always work to unglue people from believing incorrect information, research indicates that it is definitely worthwhile to provide facts every time misinformation is promulgated.

Let’s take the nonsense about the mercury-based preservative thimerosal as an example. The Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shocked scientists and public health experts when he abruptly fired all 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and replaced them with eight new members of questionable credentials to make decisions about national vaccine policy. That reconstituted committee decided to review the safety of vaccines containing thimerosal. In June, the  committee voted to no longer recommend influenza vaccines that contain thimerosal.

There are multiple reasons to assert that this decision is ill-informed and potentially harmful as follows:

• Multiple studies have shown that  thimerosal is not harmful. 
• The type of mercury that is known to be harmful to humans is methylmercury. Thimerosal is metabolized to ethylmercury, which is eliminated from the body much faster than methylmercury and therefore  much less likely to be harmful.
• The claim that thimerosal in childhood vaccines causes autism is false. Thimerosal was removed from all childhood vaccines 20 years ago, but autism rates continued to rise since then.
• Thimerosal is now only present in a very small number of influenza vaccines. These are multidose vaccines which require a preservative to avoid degradation. Most people receive the single-use type of influenza vaccine, which does not contain thimerosal. But banning multidose vials of influenza vaccine  may limit access to them, especially for people in rural and underserved parts of the country.

Why, they, did the members of ACIP spend time coming to the useless and potentially harmful conclusion that thimerosal containing multidose vials of influenza vaccine should be discontinued? That’s a good question. The decision clearly ignores the facts. 

So Many Instances of Vaccine Misinformation

The list of ill-informed decisions like this grew alarmingly in recent months. Here are just some of them:

The FDA approved new warning labels on the mRNA-based Covid-19 vaccines manufactured by Pfizer and Moderna, expanding information about the risk of vaccine-induced myocarditis, an infection of the heart lining that is usually mild and resolves without complications. While we need a rigorous system of informing clinicians about potential adverse side effects from any medications, the risk of myocarditis from the Covid-19 vaccines has been known for some time and is already included in the existing warning label. That risk is very small, about eight cases per one million doses in children and adults under 65. And even that small risk seems to be decreasing because most of the cases occurred during the initial two-dose series of vaccines given to adolescent and young adult males. Experts worry that adding to the warning label now is simply another example of falsely impugning the safety of the Covid-19 vaccines. 

Regarding the measles vaccine,  Kennedy recently stated “There are adverse events from the vaccine. It does cause deaths every year. It causes all the illnesses that measles itself cause, encephalitis and blindness, etc., and so people ought to be able to make that choice for themselves.” Vaccine expert and pediatrician  Paul Offit of the University of Pennsylvania points out that this statement, and many others Kennedy has made about the measles vaccine, is false. Offit notes that “People aren’t going to be making good choices for themselves if they hear Robert F. Kennedy Jr. say, falsely, that measles vaccine causes deaths. It doesn’t cause deaths…”

ACIP has also decided to review existing CDC recommendations for childhood vaccines, recommendations that among other things influence what health insurance companies will pay for. Besides reviving debunked concerns that the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine causes autism, the committee appears obsessed with disputing the value of the hepatitis B vaccine currently administered to newborns. Some committee members insist that there is no reason to administer the vaccine to newborns whose mothers test negative for the virus that causes hepatitis B and that, given that the virus can be transmitted by sexual contact or intravenous drug use, newborns can’t acquire it. All of this overlooks the facts that  testing pregnant people for hepatitis B has proven inconsistent, that hepatitis B can also be acquired through  household contacts like sharing toothbrushes, and that if a child is infected at birth with hepatitis B they will  almost certainly develop chronic infection causing the death of one-quarter of those infected. Like all approved vaccines, hepatitis B vaccination of newborns has proven  remarkably safe and effective. There is thus absolutely no reason to revisit the current recommendation and changing it is guaranteed to cause chronic disease and death. 

Then there is the persistent claim that children receive too many vaccinations. This claim contends that a child’s immune system is too immature to handle all the vaccines currently recommended, leading to harmful adverse effects. Once again, science easily disputes this claim. Remember that every cubic centimeter of air we breathe at sea level contains a million trillion molecules. Among that vast number are thousands of antigens–proteins that the immune system recognizes as foreign and potentially harmful. The amount of antigen given in all the childhood vaccines combined is a tiny fraction of the number a child inhales with each breath. The  childhood immune system is more than capable of recognizing the antigens presented to it by vaccines, which teach the immune system how to mount an effective response to the viruses and bacteria that cause life-threatening diseases. 

Finally, in another senseless move, the CDC changed its recommendation and decided to no longer include Covid-19 vaccines for pregnant people and “healthy children.” With respect to pregnant people, the change seems based on the  false premise that Covid-19 vaccinations cause pregnancy complications like premature birth and miscarriage. Rather, it is  Covid-19 infection itself that increases the risk for miscarriage. The  American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists (ACOG) of course objected to the change in recommendations. Their statement noted that “We also understand that despite the change in recommendations from HHS, the science has not changed. It is very clear that COVID-19 infection during pregnancy can be catastrophic and lead to major disability, and it can cause devastating consequences for families.”

The federal administration continues to claim it is trying to further transparency and gold standard science. But, as Peter Marks, a distinguished hematologist and oncologist and former director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, pointed out in the  New England Journal of Medicine, recent decisions and policy changes do not advance either objective. Rather, they represent a devastating assault on health and safety.

A silver lining in all of this could be the confirmation of  Susan Monarez as the new CDC director. Monarez, who has a PhD in microbiology and immunology, said during her confirmation hearing “I think vaccines save lives.” Monarez could stand in the way of some of the destructive vaccine notions currently in play. The editors of the  Washington Post  opined “Lives will depend on whether Monarez resists Kennedy’s efforts to make America sick again.”   

Those are some examples of rampant vaccine misinformation and the facts to counteract them. It is only a partial list. Despite the flood, it is imperative we do all we can to ensure that US Americans know those facts and are not misled or intimidated. Vaccines do indeed save lives and they do so safely. Retreating from them will be disastrous.