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Children's Health Children's Health Basics

The Truth about Childhood Immunizations and Risk

Summary & Participants

Find out why parents should be more afraid of disease than immunizations.

Medically Reviewed On: August 12, 2008

Webcast Transcript

DR. BENARD DREYER, AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS SPOKESPERSON: The good news is that we have really eradicated so many childhood diseases with immunizations that people forget what they were like.

ANNOUNCER: One common fear is that vaccinations carry a small risk of autism

DR. BENARD DREYER, AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS SPOKESPERSON: There have been study after study that have shown that that’s really not the case. And autism is a terrible disease; it’s just not related to hepatitis b vaccine or measles, mumps, rubella vaccine, or any of the vaccines that are out there.

ANNOUNCER: So if immunizations are safe, why are some parents still concerned about autism?

DR. BENARD DREYER, AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS SPOKESPERSON: Well, one of the reasons I think parents did blame the vaccine, is that many children with autism get diagnosed sometime in the second year of life. And most kids, almost everybody gets an MMR vaccine between 12 and 15 months of age. So here they get this vaccine, and then a couple months later people notice that there’s something wrong with the child. But in fact, it’s unrelated to getting a vaccine.

ANNOUNCER: Dr. Dreyer says the best way to keep your kids healthy, is to keep them immunized.

DR. BENARD DREYER, AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS SPOKESPERSON: Most parents today don’t even know what these diseases are, never saw them, never had experience with them, and so sometimes parents get more afraid of the immunization than they are of the disease, because they’ve never seen the disease.

ANNOUNCER: Thanks for joining us on today’s Once Daily!