Vaccine safety

Questions about vaccine safety are common and understandable. Vaccine safety is important to everyone. Vaccines are safe and serious side effects are very rare. Vaccines, like any other drug, are not without some risks. Vaccines are the safest and most effective tool we have to help prevent serious and sometimes fatal diseases like pertussis (whooping cough), measles, tetanus, hepatitis B, diphtheria, as well as others. 

Vaccines go through many years of safety and effectiveness testing. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) looks at the results of these tests to decide whether to license the vaccine for use in the United States. To learn more about vaccine safety from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), click here.

To learn more about why certain ingredients are used in vaccines click here.

Steps to ensuring safe vaccine