Why aren’t we focused on the vaccine injured?

As a speaker at an anti-vaccine conference, HHS Secretary RFK Jr. said that we should focus more on the vaccine-injured. He also said that the Hep B vaccine was only studied for a short amount of time, that vaccines are not studied enough, and that vaccines cause chronic health conditions.

• Hepatitis B vaccine studies lasted much longer than four or five days. Those short periods tracked short-term reactions.
• Vaccines go through several stages of testing and review before approval.
• A health problem reported after vaccination does not prove the vaccine caused it.

RFK Jr.’s claims about hepatitis B vaccine testing leave out key details. He points to sections of the vaccine package inserts that describe watching babies for reactions for four or five days. But those sections focus on short-term reactions, such as soreness or fever. They do not describe the full length of the studies. The same inserts also describe follow-up periods of nine to 18 months. Before approval, vaccines go through several stages of testing and a review of their safety and how well they work. You can learn more about the vaccine approval process here.

He also points to lists of reported health problems in the inserts as proof that vaccines cause those problems. But a report alone does not show the cause. A vaccine side effect is a health change caused by a vaccine. An “adverse event” is a health problem that happens after vaccination, whether or not the vaccine caused it. These events can be reported during studies or after a vaccine is approved.

The inserts explain that reports sent in after approval have limits. On their own, these reports cannot show how often a problem happens or whether the vaccine caused it. Researchers need more evidence to answer those questions.