Fear of vaccines derives from the perception of risk of both known and alleged vaccine side effects. In addition to the known side effects of vaccines (pain and redness at the injectionsite, fever, or swelling), vaccines have been blamed for causing asthma, autism, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, sudden infant death syndrome, and other conditions. Research shows that most parents (almost 70%) who refuse to vaccinate their children do so because they think vaccines may cause harm. As with any other drug, vaccines are not 100% safe, although serious adverse reactions are rare. But because preventive vaccines are usually given to healthy people, there is a much higher standard of safety expected of vaccines than for drugs. Moreover, most vaccines are administered at ages when developmental problems ...