People shouldn’t worry about side effects if going with out is much worse. If you think vaccines caused your kid to have autism (the watered down kind that is easily confused with just being socially awkward) compared to death by small pox or paralysis by polio, autism isn’t too bad.

Not to say there is any reason to think a vaccine should cause anything worse than the disease it prevents, since all it does is expose a person to that said disease in a milder form. Worst case scenario the vaccination back fires and they get a full-blown infection, and thus wind up in the same place as if they never had the vaccination.

But then again that takes some critical thinking, and if these people had that they might insist on pasteurization too.

@Jake made an interesting comment, one that I never thought about before. Yes, the anti-vaccination people are concerned about side effects of vaccination. They rarely question the effectiveness of vaccination (more on that in a moment). Their concerns are misguided! Side effects from vaccination are minimal or non-existent. It is more sensible to worry about effectiveness; most diseases that vaccinations inoculate against have high mortality rates. Even the less lethal can cause permanent damage for life. Now THAT is something to fear, not vaccination!

As for vaccine efficacy, this is odd: I noticed recently that some websites and radio stations that are distrustful of government, big pharma, Democrats, Republicans, and so forth have been reveling in any news of influenza vaccination not being 100% effective.

The saddest aspect of anti-vaccination sentiment is that it exposes children disproportionately to disease e.g. diphtheria, rubella, measles, tetanus, mumps. Yet it is the (adult) parents who make the decision to disallow vaccines for their children.

“How effective is the flu vaccine in the elderly?

Older people with weaker immune systems often have a lower protective immune response after influenza vaccination compared to younger, healthier persons. This can result in lower levels of vaccine effectiveness in these people.
How effective is the flu vaccine in children?

In general, the flu vaccine works best among young, healthy adults and older children. Lesser effects of flu vaccine are often found in studies of young children (e.g., those younger than 2 years of age) and older adults.
How is vaccine effectiveness measured?

How well a vaccine works can be measured through different kinds of studies. “Randomized studies,” in which people are randomly assigned to receive either vaccine or placebo (e.g., saline solution), and then followed to see how many in each group get influenza, are the “gold standard” (best method) for determining how well a vaccine works. The measurement of vaccine effect from a randomized (placebo-controlled) study is referred to as “efficacy.” “Observational studies” are studies in which subjects who choose to be vaccinated are compared to those who chose not to be vaccinated. This means that vaccination of study subjects is not randomized. The measurement of vaccine effect from an observational study is referred to as “effectiveness.” Randomized studies are expensive and cannot be conducted after a recommendation for vaccination has been issued, as withholding vaccine from people recommended for vaccination would place them at risk for infection, illness and possibly serious complications. For that reason, for example, most recent studies of how well flu vaccines work in the elderly have been observational studies.”
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/vaccineeffect.htm

These results indicate the vaccination with the 2012-2013 flu season vaccine reduced the risk of flu-associated medical visits from influenza A (H3N2) by one half and from influenza B by two-thirds for most of the population. Overall VE estimates suggest that the 2012-2013 influenza vaccine has moderate effectiveness for most age groups against circulating flu viruses, similar to previously published reports. The one exception to this was the VE among people 65 and older against influenza A (H3N2) viruses. The adjusted VE against outpatient medical visits due to laboratory-confirmed influenza A (H3N2) in adults aged 65 and older was 9% (95% CI:-84% to 55%).
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/season/flu-season-2012-2013.htm

CDC: Flu vaccine often doesn’t work
http://www.nbcnews.com/video/nightly-news/50897691

Someone who habitually doubts accepted beliefs about the vaccine data, for those people it is really helpful to see this chart for vaccine skeptics. Thanks