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My son told me that that during a discussion at school someone mentioned statistics about side effects of vaccines (I assume that the discussion was about standard vaccines in France). The numbers were completely off (1/100 "illness", 1/100 "death" - again, these numbers do not make sense).

I wanted to provide him facts to rationalize (quantify) the discussion but it is now an hour I am searching on French, Canadian and US official sites (as well as WHO) and I cannot find any statistics on side effects (from mild to mortal).

I understand that "side effects" and "vaccines" are general concepts but I want to start with anything to just show the error. Let's say that "side effect" is anything from "reasonably impacting" (so not an arm which hurts for 48 hours) to death, and "vaccines" is anything from the typical set a child will get.

Is there a place where such statistics are available?

Please note that I am not talking here about "vaccines cause autism" (there is plenty of information about that) or "vaccines are not useful" (plenty of comparative studies as well). I also understand that vaccination is a pro-vs-cons decision, I have a hard time finding the "cons" in the form of numbers.

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(World Health Organisation, 2014. p. 2) shows the adverse effect (side-effect) rates for the MMR vaccine. For instance, fever between the 7th to 12th day after vaccination occurs in 5 to 15% of vaccine recipients and rashes occur in 2-5% of vaccines, etc. Page 6 summarises the results in a table. As you point out, the adverse effects are variable in severity and dependent on the particular vaccine; an organisation like the WHO will take into account the risk and severity of these adverse effects before recommending the use of the vaccine. And as you point out, it is not believed by the scientific community at large that vaccines have links with autism.

References

World Health Organisation. (2014). Information sheet observed rate of vaccine reactions measles, mumps and rubella vaccines.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thank you, this is an excellent stating point - particularly the page 6 you mention. I will translate it to French and make it available for discussion. $\endgroup$
    – WoJ
    Commented Dec 11, 2018 at 21:44
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    $\begingroup$ There are WHO information sheets on different vaccines here, and there are informative tables at the bottom of each technical report and studies cited throughout. The CDC has an extensive publications list on vaccine safety, and by accessing the "Specific Vaccines" tab at the CDC immunization safety office, you're directed to information on individual vaccines. $\endgroup$
    – CKM
    Commented Dec 11, 2018 at 21:47
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    $\begingroup$ The CDC links for specific vaccines have products listed with links to FDA information pages. You can look through the drug package inserts for good information on adverse events. $\endgroup$
    – CKM
    Commented Dec 11, 2018 at 21:48
  • $\begingroup$ @CKM: thank you. I have gone though the WHO site and found information about the kind of side effects but not the numbers. The specific sheets you point to in your second link are excellent - I just went though two of them and they give rates for mild effects (not for severe, but that's a start and I will dig further). I also saw the VAERS site mentioned elsewhere, but it is a technical reporting system, without statistics. Anyway - I have now plenty of information to prepare my son for the war for science :) Thanks again. $\endgroup$
    – WoJ
    Commented Dec 12, 2018 at 13:25
  • $\begingroup$ @CKM: thank you. I have gone though the WHO site and found information about the kind of side effects but not the numbers. The specific sheets you point to in your second link are excellent - I just went though two of them and they give rates for mild effects (not for severe, but that's a start and I will dig further). I also saw the VAERS site mentioned elsewhere, but it is a technical reporting system, without statistics. Anyway - I have now plenty of information to prepare my son for the war for science :) Thanks again. $\endgroup$
    – WoJ
    Commented Dec 12, 2018 at 13:25

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