Vaccines are safe

You are not quite correct about in your statement "vaccines are created with the actual virus, disease, etc." The type of vaccine you are referring to is called an attenuaed vaccine with live viruses or bacteria. However the pathogen has been weakened in a lab so it can't cause disease. According to the National institute of Health (NIH) "The remote possibility exists that an attenuated microbe in the vaccine could revert to a virulent form and cause disease." The key word here is remote. While it is possible that an attenuate virus or bacterium could mutate and cause disease the chances of that happening are incredibly small.For your anecdotal evidence; your brother likely was one of the very few people who are allergic to vaccines.In addition to Attenuated vaccines there are six other types: 1. Inactivated vaccines which are made from the actual virus or bacterium however the pathogen is killed. So in the case of innactivated vaccines there is no chance of causing disease.2. Subunit vaccines are created by taking only the antigens which best stimulate the immune system, rather than the whole microbe.3. For this one I will give a direct quote from the NIH: Toxoid Vaccines "For bacteria that secrete toxins, or harmful chemicals, a toxoid vaccine might be the answer. These vaccines are used when a bacterial toxin is the main cause of illness. Scientists have found that they can inactivate toxins by treating them with formalin, a solution of formaldehyde and sterilized water. Such “detoxified” toxins, called toxoids, are safe for use in vaccines. When the immune system receives a vaccine containing a harmless toxoid, it learns how to fight off the natural toxin. The immune system produces antibodies that lock onto and block the toxin. Vaccines against diphtheria and tetanus are examples of toxoid" 4. This one kind of confused me so I'll give a quote from the NIH: Conjugate Vaccines If a bacterium possesses an outer coating of sugar molecules called polysaccharides, as many harmful bacteria do, researchers may try making a conjugate vaccine for it. Polysaccharide coatings disguise a bacterium’s antigens so that the immature immune systems of infants and younger children can’t recognize or respond to them. Conjugate vaccines, a special type of subunit vaccine, get around this problem. When making a conjugate vaccine, scientists link antigens or toxoids from a microbe that an infant’s immune system can recognize to the polysaccharides. The linkage helps the immature immune system react to polysaccharide coatings and defend against the disease-causing bacterium. 5. Probably the safest is the new DNA vaccine which uses only the DNa of the patholgen to evoke an immune response. 6. Again I will give a quote from NIH:Recombinant Vector Vaccines Recombinant vector vaccines are experimental vaccines similar to DNA vaccines, but they use an attenuated virus or bacterium to introduce microbial DNA to cells of the body. “Vector” refers to the virus or bacterium used as the carrier. In nature, viruses latch on to cells and inject their genetic material into them. In the lab, scientists have taken advantage of this process. They have figured out how to take the roomy genomes of certain harmless or attenuated viruses and insert portions of the genetic material from other microbes into them. The carrier viruses then ferry that microbial DNA to cells. Recombinant vector vaccines closely mimic a natural infection and therefore do a good job of stimulating the immune system. Attenuated bacteria also can be used as vectors. In this case, the inserted genetic material causes the bacteria to display the antigens of other microbes on its surface. In effect, the harmless bacterium mimics a harmful microbe, provoking an immune response. According to wikipedia the NVIC is a group of anti-vaccination activists. It is not going to be a valid source since they cherry pick data and don't show any of the numerous studies that disprove a correlation to any of those diseases you mentioned. Also the so called coincidence of an increasing number of cases is more likely to be do to an increase in patients being diagnosed because of advancing medical equipment. Finally the article you posted doesn't support your arguement. According to the article the IOM says "vaccines are not free from side effects, or adverse effects. All medicines and treatments have very low risk of adverse side effects. Dr. Mercola was simply taking a general statement and misinterpreting it in a way to support his (her?) claims. Finally