Vaccine injuries

What are vaccine injuries, and how common are they?

The World Health Organization says that licensed vaccines are safe, and it is far more likely for someone to be seriously injured by a vaccine-preventable disease than by a vaccine.

Most vaccine reactions, if they occur, are minor and temporary – such as rashes or brief fevers.

However, serious vaccine injuries leading to death can occur, although they are very rare.

For example, the risk of anaphylaxis – severe allergic shock – is less than two cases per million doses of vaccines in children and adolescents.

The US National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program exists to compensate those affected by vaccine injuries. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, from 2006 to 2016 more than 3.1 billion doses of vaccines covered by the program were distributed in the U.S. Of those 3,676 were compensated – in 80% of cases as part of a negotiated settlement. This means that for every one million doses of vaccines distributed in the US, one individual was compensated.

The US authorities have consistently stressed that compensation doesn't necessarily imply that vaccines caused the alleged injuries.

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