Childhood Immunizations: Get the Facts If you are the parent of
a young child, you may be confused about the safety of
immunizations. You may have heard that vaccines cause life-
threatening side effects or can lead to other diseases. Or you
may have read that vaccines are not necessary anymore. According
to the CDC, the United States has the most effective and safest
vaccines. U.S. law requires that several years of product
testing for effectiveness and safety occur before a vaccine can
be licensed. Once in use, vaccines are constantly monitored for
safety and effectiveness, but they can cause side effects like
other medications. Fact 1: Vaccines are still needed to prevent
disease. Although many diseases no longer exist or are rare in
the United States, they are common in other parts of the world.
Because traveling is so widespread, these diseases can still be
passed on to those who are not vaccinated. This has happened in
the past. A drop in vaccines led to an epidemic of measles in
the United States betwee