Measles is making a comeback, with a 20-year high in reported infections, due mostly to folks who are opting out of the vaccination, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Across the nation, an epidemic of whooping cough in California, outbreaks of chickenpox in Indiana and measles in Ohio have made national headlines. In many cases, the anti-vaccine movement is persuading parents not to vaccinate their children — that’s causing a lot of harm to at-risk children and adults who are susceptible to these preventable diseases. So before you refuse (or skip) a vaccination, get the facts from us. Myth No. 1: Vaccines do more harm than good. Vaccine fact: Vaccines save lives. We’re not saying vaccines are risk-free, but the ratio of serious adverse reactions to beneficial effect is about 1 to 40,000. Before pertussis (whooping cough) vaccines were available in the 1940s, an estimated 200,000 children were infected annually, and 9,000 died. Before there was a measles vaccine, up to 4 million Americans a year were infected: 1,000 suffered brain damage or hearing loss and 450 died. Diphtheria killed 15,000 Americans in one year (1921) before there was a vaccine. During a pre-vaccine rubella (German measles) outbreak in the 1960s, 2,000 babies died and 11,000 pregnant women had miscarriages.

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