{"id":12262,"date":"2025-05-22T18:06:45","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T23:06:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.voicesforvaccines.org\/?post_type=jtf_topics&p=12262"},"modified":"2025-05-31T18:09:41","modified_gmt":"2025-05-31T23:09:41","slug":"are-childhood-vaccines-grounded-in-evidence","status":"publish","type":"jtf_topics","link":"https:\/\/www.voicesforvaccines.org\/es\/jtf_topics\/are-childhood-vaccines-grounded-in-evidence\/","title":{"rendered":"Are childhood vaccines grounded in evidence?"},"content":{"rendered":"
[vc_row source=”” text=”Clinical Trials” font_container=”tag:h2|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes” google_fonts=”font_family:Abril%20Fatface%3Aregular|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal” link=”” css=”.vc_custom_1708910874436{border-top-width: 1px !important;border-right-width: 1px !important;border-bottom-width: 1px !important;border-left-width: 1px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_custom_heading text=”The Claim:” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text css=””]In a\u00a0hearing<\/a>\u00a0before the Senate HELP committee, RFK Jr. claimed that most childhood vaccines were not tested for safety using placebo trials before being approved and that the government only recently started using evidence-based medicine for vaccines.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_custom_heading text=”The Facts:” font_container=”tag:h3|text_align:left” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text css=””]In the clip above, Kennedy\u00a0claims 1) vaccine experts at the CDC and FDA haven\u2019t used \u201cevidence-based medicine\u201d until recently 2) vaccines are exempt from pre-licensing safety testing,\u00a03) the only vaccine tested in a placebo-controlled trial was the COVID vaccine and 4)\u00a0that children receive 76 of these “untested” shots.<\/p>\n

Evidence-based medicine means using the best available data and research to make medical decisions. This has been part of\u00a0vaccine development<\/a>\u00a0for decades. The committees at the CDC and FDA are made up of doctors, scientists, and public health experts who look at all the scientific data before making decisions about vaccines. These groups don\u2019t just guess\u2014they follow strict rules and look at all the evidence before recommending a vaccine for use.<\/p>\n

Vaccines are tested very carefully before they are approved; the process is clearly laid out by\u00a0the\u00a0CDC<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0FDA<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0First, they go through lab and animal testing. Then, they go through three stages of human clinical trials and those results are thoroughly reviewed before the vaccines\u00a0are considered for approvals.<\/p>\n

In these trials, thousands of volunteers are given either the vaccine or something else, like a placebo or a different vaccine, so researchers can compare the results. Even if the placebo is not always just saline\u00a0(an \u201cinert\u201d placebo), the comparison is still valid. Scientists compare rates of illness and side effects between the two groups to see how well the vaccine works and whether it causes any problems.<\/p>\n

A common misconception is that a\u00a0placebo<\/a>\u00a0must be an inert substance, but that’s not always the case. If there is an adjuvant that has been tested for safety in the past, the placebo might include the adjuvant to keep the trial arms as identical as possible between the vaccine and the placebo. Additionally, in the cases of new vaccines, if there is a vaccine that already exists, that can be used as a placebo against a new, possibly improved vaccine, since you’re testing whether the new treatment works better than the old one.<\/p>\n

Saline-placebo-controlled trials are conducted for many vaccines to assess both\u00a0safety<\/a>\u00a0and efficacy:<\/p>\n