Introduction: In Germany, a large number of biased reports against vaccination have recently been published in all of the news media, and particularly on the internet. This paper discusses the safety profile of modern vaccines and their continuous surveillance and shows why the current criticism of vaccination on safety grounds is unjustified.
Methods: The authors have performed a selective literature search to enable a proper distinction to be drawn between scientifically justified and unjustified reports on the potential adverse effects of vaccination.
Results: At present, the safety of a new vaccine must be demonstrated in large-scale clinical trials before the product is licensed. After licensing, the safety of new vaccines is constantly monitored, and the results of monitoring are published.
Discussion: An examination of these data reveals that the expressed doubts about the safety of vaccines are unjustified.
Keywords: safety; side effects; surveillance; unjustified scepticism about vaccines; vaccination.