Yahoo! Life: 5 Vaccine Truths Experts Want You to Know

Yahoo! Life recently interviewed clinical pharmacist Greg Marks, PharmD, coordinator of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program at Cedars-Sinai, about misinformation around vaccine safety and effectiveness.

Marks told Yahoo! Life that the experts who develop immunization schedules for children and adolescents carefully monitor vaccine safety. He also addressed whether it is safe for young people to receive multiple vaccines at the same time.

“There are studies on different combinations of vaccines and no evidence that giving vaccines together as the schedule recommends is associated with any real additional harm—that ‘overloading’ of the immune system,” he said.

Marks added that separating out vaccines—whether for children or adults—can have drawbacks, including more appointments, more time off work to get to an appointment, “and more time you’re potentially exposed, too.”

Marks told Yahoo! Life that when people get vaccinated, it also helps protect those not able to get a vaccine—like newborns—and creates herd immunity, in which enough people are immune to a disease that it can’t spread as easily.

“This is an important concept because there are people who are immunocompromised who can be vaccinated but their response might be reduced, so having that herd immunity is very important for people with these conditions,” he said.

According to the World Health Organization, we now have vaccines to prevent more than 20 life-threatening diseases. Immunizations have prevented more than 150 million deaths worldwide over the past 50 years—six lives every minute of every year.

Click here to read the complete article from Yahoo! Life.