Whopper of the Week: RFK Jr.’s Claims of “Immune Overload” is Nonsense and Ignores How the Immune System Works

THIS WEEK'S WHOPPER:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Claims of "immune overload" is nonsense and ignores how the immune system works

IN SUMMARY:

Vaccines help the immune system recognize and respond to dangerous viruses circulating in the environment. In the United States, children are typically immunized against 18 or 19 serious diseases that can kill or disable, and that are especially debilitating to children under age two. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. believes we should limit and, in some cases, remove protections from vaccine-preventable diseases altogether for our children. In June, Kennedy falsely claimed that “children get between 69 and 92 vaccines before they are 18” and, without evidence, added, “these are products that are designed to deregulate your immune system.” Secretary Kennedy wants to reduce the number of recommended vaccines in the earliest years of life, in particular combination vaccines, which we know are critical for keeping our youth healthy and alive. Secretary Kennedy’s approach will only weaken children’s immune defenses, increasing their risk of disability and death.

https://www.cdc.gov/ncird-surveillance/media/VPD-morbidity-slide1-mmwr-508.pdf

WHY IS THIS A WHOPPER?

Secretary Kennedy falsely claimed children get between 69-92 vaccines, but the fact is a child in the United States usually is recommended 30 doses of vaccines from birth to age 6 and an additional 6 doses from between ages 6 and 18, if you exclude influenza and COVID-19 vaccines which are offered annually. The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia has an easy to understand schedule by age bracket.

Some vaccines are given as combination vaccines, to more efficiently protect children from multiple diseases in one shot. Combination vaccines limit the number of needle sticks and doctor visits – because nobody wants to take their children to the doctor more often than needed, or miss more work or school days to do so. Combination vaccines help the immune system to recognize different pathogens at the same time. The measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) and diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP or DTaP) vaccines are two of the most common combination vaccines. Each of the antigens (components) included in combination vaccines is tested on its own to ensure safety and effectiveness, and then they are tested again when combined to ensure they remain safe and work together to enhance the immune response. Combination vaccines save children from becoming ill with serious infectious diseases and help prevent hospitalization and death.

The fear some have of “immune overload” from vaccines ignores basic facts about how our immune system works. The natural world is full of things that challenge the immune system. By design, the immune system activates in response to challenges from chemicals foreign to our body, most often proteins or sugars from pathogens, which are called antigens. "Kids are exposed to 2,000 to 6,000 antigens every day just by playing at the playground or going to school," said Dr. Pia Pannaraj of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)

Committee on Infectious Diseases.

Vaccines are also designed to present antigens, but very specific ones that teach our immune system to recognize and respond quickly to dangerous diseases. Over time, pharmaceutical firms have reduced the number of antigens present in vaccines. As infectious disease physician Dr. Jake Scott notes, in 1986 kids were exposed to over 3,200 antigens from vaccines, but today’s entire pediatric vaccine schedule contains about 165 antigens total. Still, the question of whether too many vaccines could be given at once has been asked. In 2002, a landmark study explored how many vaccines would be “too much” for an infant’s immune system. It concluded that the immune system could theoretically handle 10,000 vaccines simultaneously without impairment, while still only using just about 1% of circulating B (immune) cells to respond to those vaccines. Far from overwhelming the immune system, scientists have made vaccines considerably more efficient over time by reducing the number of antigens used to teach our immune systems to protect us from diseases.

RFK Jr. tells parents that vaccines cause “immune dysregulation” in children. How? If vaccines harmed the immune system, children would be more likely to become sick from unrelated infectious diseases after vaccination. But a 2005 study of 800,000 Danish children born between 1990 and 2001 who received routine childhood vaccinations up to age 5 found no association between combination vaccines or aggregated vaccine exposure and the risk of hospitalization for infectious diseases like upper respiratory tract infections, pneumonia, septicemia, meningitis, and diarrhea. A similar US study in 2018, of 1,000 American children, looked at the exposure of multiple vaccines through the first 23 months of life and reached similar conclusions. Vaccines do not make children more susceptible to infection, which is what “immune dysregulation” implies.

Yes, American children receive more vaccines than their parents did a generation ago, but that is a good thing: they’re protected from more pathogens now, and more efficiently, by being given fewer antigenic exposures to do so. In the last 30 years, new vaccines have been developed for varicella , rotavirus, hepatitis A, pneumococcal influenza, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), Hepatitis B (HepB), HPV and COVID-19. They have fewer side effects and are delivered through novel mechanisms. As Dr. Paul Offit explains, “The increased number of vaccines given to children and the increased percentage of children receiving vaccines have resulted in a dramatic decrease in the number of vaccine-preventable diseases.”

https://ourworldindata.org/vaccination

WHY IT MATTERS:

Secretary Kennedy is trying to change the schedule of childhood vaccines, eliminating recommendations for some vaccines, breaking combination vaccines up into separate shots, spreading the shots out over a longer period of time. Kennedy’s approach could result in more total shots for kids. For instance, breaking the combined MMR vaccine into separate individual shots for measles, mumps, and rubella could change the current two-shot approach for all three diseases at once into six shots total (two for each separate disease). Doing that would be less efficient, and cost more – more in doctor’s fees, more in school days lost for kids and in work days lost for parents, just to make the extra doctor’s appointments required to get them. What’s more, if children are vaccinated later or for fewer diseases, they will simply be more vulnerable to infections that will make them sick and in some cases cause serious long term harm. As Dr. Titanji put it, “Skipping or delaying vaccines doesn’t protect, it exposes.”

We are already seeing the impacts of reduced vaccination rates in children. The United States has recorded nearly 1,600 cases of measles as of mid-October, in a total of 44 separate outbreaks in multiple states, resulting in three deaths. This is the highest number of measles cases since 1992, and will almost certainly result in untold amounts of immune amnesia yet to come. Pertussis has also returned to the US in areas with low vaccination. Experts worry that Polio could make a resurgence and, with it, the paralysis that affects one in 200 cases. Secretary Kennedy should be protecting our kids and our future, not endangering them.