How Safe Are Pertussis And Rubella Vaccines? A Commentary on the Institute of Medicine Report

Abstract

"Vaccines are safe and effective, but no vaccine is perfectly safe nor perfectly effective." This statement, in various forms, has been the shorthand experts use to describe a global view of the status of vaccines. It is a true statement, but it lacks quantification and specificity. Which vaccines? How safe? How effective? How perfect (or imperfect)? For many of the products we use to immunize children, we have only partial answers to these questions. Nevertheless, we must employ these vaccines in our preventive health strategies, once we are certain that the degree of safety and the degree of effectiveness is of pragmatic value.