--- title: Why Vaccinations Are Safe description: Watch TIME Editor-at-Large Jeffrey Kluger explain why getting vaccinated is safe and effective. canonical: https://time.com/5530611/vaccines-safe-effective/ author: Jeffrey Kluger article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-02-15T20:26:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-13T08:22:48.978Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Yes, Vaccines Really Are Safe and Effective. Here's Why og:description: Watch a TIME editor explain og:url: https://time.com/5530611/vaccines-safe-effective/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt919a264fff2f7b15/69894543096a9407506a4946/gettyimages-76024284.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Miami-Dade County Gives Child Immunizations Before School Begins og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Yes, Vaccines Really Are Safe and Effective. Here's Why twitter:description: Watch a TIME editor explain twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt919a264fff2f7b15/69894543096a9407506a4946/gettyimages-76024284.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Yes, Vaccines Really Are Safe and Effective. Here's Why > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=99225c2b-0a45-4579-9172-4c73becb3d1b&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) ## Video: TIME Ideas: Why You Should Absolutely Get Vaccinated [Watch (HLS stream): TIME Ideas: Why You Should Absolutely Get Vaccinated](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/1ekKbynQ.m3u8) (2:52)  _Published 2019-02-15. TIME Ideas: Why You Should Absolutely Get Vaccinated_  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Feb 15, 2019 8:26 PM UTC  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Feb 15, 2019 8:26 PM UTC Yet another outbreak of a vaccine-preventable disease — this time [measles in the Pacific Northwest](http://time.com/5524505/measles-washington-vaccination/) — provides another reminder of the importance of getting children fully vaccinated, on schedule. Anti-vax or vaccine-skeptical parents are certainly not acting out of malevolence. They’re doing what they believe will protect their children’s health. But the fact is they’re achieving the opposite — potentially endangering their health. Those are the facts. Watch the video with TIME’s Editor-at-Large Jeffrey Kluger above to learn why. ## Transcript I'm Jeffrey Kluger, editor at large, for TIME magazine and I'm here to argue the hard truth that vaccines are safe, effective, and save lives, full stop. [ MUSIC ] There are people who disagree with those facts, who believe that vaccines are unsafe. Unnecessary and that their dangers are being covered up by a conspiracy of silence between the pharmaceutical industry and the government. Non of these, not a syllable of it is true, here is why. First of all, it bears repeating. Vaccines do not cause autism. They never have, they never will. That initial misconception was traced to a fraudulent 1998 study by British doctor Andrew Wakefield. The study as later retracted and Wakefield was stripped of his license to practice medicine in the UK. It is true that autism rates have risen in recent decades, but that's not because more children are developing the condition It's simply because we're diagnosing it better, more sensitively and more liberally. vaccines like all drugs have potential side effects. And as with all drugs, nobody is hiding those side effects. The centers for disease control lists all possible side effects of all possible vaccines readily on it's web site. Most of those side effects are minor. The few that aren't are so rare that it's not even possible to link them conclusively to the vaccines. One other thing no one's hiding are the ingredients in vaccines. All of the package inserts for all vaccines are also readily available online. If you read the packaging search you will see that yes vaccines are stuffed with chemicals. All medications are stuffed with chemicals all foods are made of chemicals. You and I are made of chemicals. Chemicals are essential for life. They do not have to be bad. If generations of medical history have taught us anything, it's that vaccinating children does not lead to illness and death. It's not vaccinating children that does that. Parents who opt out of vaccines do it out of love. Do it because they think that's the best way to protect their children. But that protection comes from vaccinating, not from opting out of vaccines. [ MUSIC ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5530611/vaccines-safe-effective/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5530611/vaccines-safe-effective/"},"headline":"Yes, Vaccines Really Are Safe and Effective. 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