Vaccine Safety Research

The issue of the safety vaccines is an important one. In the U.S., vaccines are carefully evaluated for safety and the process by which vaccines are developed, licensed, administered, and tracked falls on many different organizations and individuals in both the public and private sectors. Like any other medical intervention vaccines are not without risks. For the vaccines licensed and used regularly in the U.S. serious adverse reactions are rare but do occur. Unfortunately, there are many websites that provide information on immunizations that is dubious and not backed by science.

This page is a selective collection of resources on vaccine safety. The links on this page are evaluated based on the idea that instead of subjective and emotional information there is a demand for objective, science-based information about the safety of vaccines. These sources are handpicked based on their relative independence and the objective nature of the information they provide. 

Resource #1
National Network for Immunization Information
The NNII is a partnership between several major medical organization including Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Nurses Association, the American Academy of Family Physicians, and more. The site is well-organized and includes the latest research on safety and efficacy of all vaccines. It is a very useful and objective site in evaluating the current research on immunizations.

Resource #2
Institute for Vaccine Safety
The Institute for Vaccine Safety is based at the John's Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health which is one of the most well-respected health care institutions in the U.S. The Institute was founded by among others Neal Halsey, a pediatrician and infectious disease doctor. Dr. Halsey has spent his career promoting vaccines as a way of preventing disease but in the late 90's he became concerned about the amount of mercury in vaccines as a result of the preservative thimerosal found in some vaccines. He led the precautionary movement to remove thimerosal from vaccines routinely given to children in the U.S. This website is a great source for research on different vaccines. It also includes package inserts from many vaccines, a list of components in different vaccines, and other useful content about immunizations in the U.S.

Resource #3
Dr. Andrew Weil
Dr. Weil is a well-known author and physician who helped establish and popularize the field of integrative medicine. He is the founder and Program Director of the Arizona School For Integrative Medicine. Dr. Weil is familiar to many people who use Complentary or Alternative Medicine (CAM) practices many of whom are skeptical of immunization and question the safety of vaccines. Here are Dr. Weil's opinions on safety of childhood vaccinations, aluminum in vaccines, shingles vaccine, hpv vaccine.

Resource #4
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization (WHO) has compiled a list of websites that it has approved based on criteria determined by the Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety. The list includes sites both domestic and International and includes a summary of each site with a link. This is an excellent resource to examine vaccine practices and safety research in other countries as well as the U.S.