1. Because of better hygiene, infectious diseases were starting to disappear anyway
Better and cleaner living conditions have contributed to the decreased rates of infectious diseases, but the major drop in rates is due to the introduction of vaccines.

2. The majority of people who get the disease have been immunized anyway
While some people do not develop immunity from vaccines, the majority do. Vaccines are 85% to 95% effective for all recipients. When people are exposed to an infectious disease, a smaller percentage of vaccinated individuals will get the disease in relation to the percentage of non-vaccinated individuals.

3. There are "hot lots" of vaccines that are associated with more serious side effects. Parents should be sure not to give their child a vaccine from one of these lots
VAERS or the vaccine adverse event reporting system is used to track adverse events that occur around the same time as a vaccination. Causality can not be determined because many events are coincidental. Also, lot sizes vary from several hundred thousand to several million. Larger lots will most likely have more adverse events. "Hot lots" or lots with more adverse events cannot be determined due to these factors.

4. Vaccines cause many side effects-including death and we don't even know about the long-term risks
Vaccines are actually quite safe and have few side effects. VAERS data may be misleading because causality is hard to determine. Reported deaths, therefore, are researched in depth to determine the cause. Relatively few deaths occur due to vaccinations and in 1994 the Institute of Medicine considered the risk "extraordinarily low."

5. Vaccine-preventable diseases have been virtually eliminated from the United States reducing my child's need to be vaccinated
Infectious disease rates are a lot lower than they used to be, but the diseases are still out there. Travelers may unknowingly bring these diseases to the United States and the disease can quickly spread among the population with unvaccinated individuals being hit the worst. The best thing we can do is to protect ourselves and our children by being vaccinated.

6. Giving a child more than one vaccine at a time increases the risk of side effects and can overload the immune system
Children are exposed to new antigens everyday. The exposure to foreign antigens children undergo during immunizations does not tax a normal child's immune system. Getting more than one vaccine at a time does not create a higher risk for adverse effects nor does it lessen the effectiveness of the vaccines. Vaccines are, in fact, given at the same time so the child will be immune at an earlier age. This practice also lessens the number of doctors visits, saving both time and money for parents, and minimizes trauma to the child. 

Click here to check out more about vaccines on the Centers for Disease Control website