Jérôme Salomon, Chief Medical and Science Officer at Zoī, shared on LinkedIn:
“Since 2025, several statements from the highest US health authorities have called into question the usefulness and safety of vaccines.
The World Health Organization responded directly, after reviewing 31 studies published between 2010 and 2025:
‘No causal link exists between vaccines and autism spectrum disorders.’
Here are 3 claims made in recent months, and what science and medicine actually show:
Children were healthier before vaccines – FALSE
Before vaccines were introduced, every year in the United States:
- 530,000 measles cases,
- 200,000 pertussis (whooping cough) cases,
- 21,000 diphtheria cases,
- 16,000 cases of paralytic poliomyelitis.
In 2010, after decades of widespread vaccination: 63 measles cases, 0 diphtheria cases, 0 paralytic polio cases.
This wasn’t better health – it was a life expectancy of just 65 years (versus 85 today) and massive infant mortality (29 deaths per 1,000 births vs. 5 today) that we eventually forgot about, precisely because vaccination worked.
Some vaccines are useless or ineffective – FALSE
Smallpox killed an estimated 300 million people in the 20th century. It was declared eradicated by the WHO in 1980 – the only human infectious disease eradicated to date, thanks to vaccination.
Poliomyelitis paralyzed 350,000 children every year worldwide in 1988. In 2024: 99 wild poliovirus cases recorded, in just 2 countries. A 99.9% reduction.
Childhood vaccination has prevented 154 million deaths worldwide over 50 years 6 lives saved every minute, according to the WHO, UNICEFF, and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
Vaccines cause autism – FALSE
This claim originates from a study published in 1998 in The Lancet Group, based on just 12 children. The study was retracted in 2010 for scientific fraud, and its author lost his medical license.
Since then, large cohort studies have found no association. The largest, published in 2019, followed 657,461 Danish children: no increased risk of autism among vaccinated children, including those with existing family risk factors.
Vaccine side effects do exist. They are monitored, reported, and published through national pharmacovigilance systems, and can lead to relative or absolute, temporary or permanent contraindications. But their frequency and severity remain incomparable to the collective benefits: millions of lives spared, year after year.
Doubting vaccines isn’t just a matter of opinion.
Since this scientific consensus has been challenged by certain US politicians, measles cases there have reached their highest level in 35 years – including child deaths.
Science hasn’t changed its position on vaccines, the most effective publichealth and globalhealth tools for prevention of mortality.”
Other articles featuring Jérôme Salomon on OncoDaily.
