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Vaccine safety

What are the components of Canada's Vaccine Safety System?

Components of Canada’s vaccine safety system include:

Are all of the ingredients of a vaccine safe?

Vaccines are made with ingredients that make them safe and effective. Vaccine components are used in very small amounts, and repeated studies show there is no link between their use in vaccines and disease or illness.

Here are some of the key ingredients:

Gelatin – Gelatin is contained in some vaccines. It comes only from cows known to be free of mad cow disease.

Is the risk associated with vaccines worse than the risk of disease?

Here's just one example: one in every 1,000 people who contract measles will go on to develop encephalitis. The odds of getting encephalitis from a measles vaccine? One in one million.

The idea is to focus on the right risk, with the more dangerous consequences.

It's just like: Walking across the street and looking skyward because you are worried about getting hit by a plane, instead of watching for the real danger: an oncoming car. Don't get hit by a vaccine-preventable disease!

Can vaccines cause chronic illnesses?

Is there a connection between thimerosal in vaccines and autism?

Thimerosal is a safe and effective preservative that has been used in some vaccines since the 1930s. There has never been any scientific evidence that it is harmful in the extremely small amounts used to preserve vaccines.

Did you know? Thimerosal is no longer present in childhood vaccines, with the exception of influenza. It was not removed because of safety concerns, but as a result of public perception. 

Is there any link between the MMR vaccine and autism?

Mumps, measles and rubella can lead to potentially deadly complications like pneumonia and encephalitis.

But scientific research shows that MMR does not cause autism. For example, a study of more than half a million children in Denmark showed that the likelihood of autism was the same in kids who weren't immunized as those who were.