Integr Mol Med. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2017 Nov 3.

At this time, emerging evidence begins to reveal that vaccines' risks may not be so minuscule. Assertions of safety by vaccinemakers are invariably based on incomprehensive trial designs with long-term effects under-targeted. Notably, it is extremely difficult, expensive, and time-consuming to seek proof of causation for chronic diseases with adverse effects accruing over many years. Vaccines' chronic impacts on health over a lifetime have been inadequately investigated and poorly understood.

Vaccines' side effects are invariably complex, often stealthy, and inherently multi-dimensional as contextual medical puzzles. Studies on vaccination-related adverse effects often have a limited scope, differ in approach, and contradict one another [6]. To muster the resolve for arresting these festering hazards, their true scope has to be brought to a clear focus. As shown in Table 1, almost any vaccine can induce anaphylaxis that occurs 1.3 times per million vaccinations [7]. Brachial neuritis afflicts up to 10 of every million tetanus vaccinees [7]. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the U.S. recommended 26 vaccine doses for infants in 2007 with clinical implications suggesting deleterious impacts on infants' health due to uncharacterized interference among unrelated vaccines after consecutive cycles of intensive immunization [8]. All measles-containing vaccines are associated with several types of adverse events, including seizure, fever, and immune thrombocytopenia purpura [9]. Current split formulation for the seasonal influenza vaccines in an intramuscular (i.m.) regimen tends to induce immunoglobulin (Ig) E sensitization in children [10]. Annual vaccination with injectable influenza vaccines may interfere with the development of broad immunity against influenza that could otherwise be induced by natural infection [11]. Vaccination-related effects sometimes exacerbate viral infections (e.g., respiratory syncytial virus; dengue virus; measles virus; influenza virus) [12-14]. The consequence of a vaccination-induced polarized T-cell memory profile on clinical outcomes is largely a terra incognita [15,16]. Improper injection of vaccines into the arm can provoke an inflammation that damages tendons, ligaments, bursas and reduce friction in the joint [7,17]. For every vaccine that causes a tangible injury, there may be many more vaccines that cause either minor injuries or major injuries in a slow motion, as suggested by the Heinrich's law. Even one injury from vaccination is one too many. It is thus counterfactual to assert that vaccination is universally safe with only minor risks. These lines of evidence complicate the picture of vaccine safety as the obscure findings lend weight to the risk of missing vaccines' real McCoy - “keep people healthy.” To date, there has been little to no discussion of how these revelations may guide policies on vaccine safety, which is intrinsic to the vaccine industry, coursing through anti-vaccine movement, and prevalent in society at large.