The pediatrician said no, but still, the Dallas mother wondered. There's an overwhelming consensus in the medical community that events like this are coincidental. Neal Halsey of the Institute for Vaccine Safety at Johns Hopkins University. Because so many vaccines are given at one time, research is being done to make sure they don't interact in a dangerous way. Manufacturers are trying to see if they can be combined and there are careful studies that are being done.
Vaccination is considered the century's biggest public health success.
Vaccines eradicated smallpox. Polio, one of the most feared diseases until an effective vaccine for the paralyzing virus was found in 1955, could disappear in a few years. Last year, the nation recorded just 100 measles cases. Yet, let up on vaccination before a disease is eradicated and it rapidly bounces back. The United States lapsed with measles inoculations in 1989, and 55,000 people got sick and 120 died.