With respect to Erwin Gemmer, his recent letter concerning vaccinations is highly misleading and in some cases completely wrong. Vaccinations have been responsible for saving hundreds of thousands of lives. Contrary to his assertion, most of the diseases did not see a drastic decline until after we started vaccinating against those diseases. Improved sanitation, hygiene, water and food quality were not enough. In 2007 alone, 44 million infections and 33,000 deaths were prevented (according to the American Academy of Pediatrics). Vaccines have been proven to be safe and effective. Are they 100 percent risk-free? Of course not; no medical treatment is without some risk. But the risks associated with vaccines are exceedingly small when compared to the benefits.

As to some of Mr. Gemmer’s other claims:

• To say that 5 percent of pediatricians or 10 percent of family practitioners do not vaccinate their own children without any accompanying evidence is irresponsible.

• The American Association of Physicians and Surgeons is a small group ( less than 4,000 members, not all of whom are doctors) with a dubious reputation and hardly representative of the medical community. The American Academy of Pediatrics, on the other hand, is composed of 60,000 board-certified pediatricians and fully advocates the immunization of our children.

• Vaccines do contain formaldehyde, aluminum salts, and glutaraldehyde. They are not, however, toxic and to list them without discussing dosage and concentration is highly misleading. I could just as easily say we should stop using salt because it contains sodium and chlorine.

• Routine vaccines do not contain mercury and a link between vaccines and autism is not supported.

• Adverse side effects are rare and most usually as a result of an allergic reaction, typically of the food variety. While there are certainly numerous Web sites making claims of vaccines’ harm, personal anecdotes do not qualify as evidence.

• To say that vaccinated children represent most of the outbreak cases is again misleading. Since the vast majority of children are vaccinated, we should expect their numbers to be higher. Outbreaks are not common among vaccinated children.

• There is no human tissue in vaccines, period. As to blood from various animals, it is serum albumin which is used in vaccines (a type of blood plasma protein) and only from human and bovine sources, which are highly regulated and screened.

If you have questions or concerns regarding vaccinations seek out the experts, namely your pediatrician. Do not rely on questionable Google sources with dubious credentials. Or, visit the Web sites of the American Academy of Pediatricians or the Center for Disease Control. Both have volumes of evidence-based information.

Cameron Peters,

Suquamish