Who Profits From My Vaccine Choices?

Article at a Glance

• Vaccinations have largely reduced the spread and deaths surrounding diseases.
• Many companies earn profits from vaccine alternatives that aren’t supported by substantial research.
• When researching, try to use scholarly resources to back up your claims.

One of the common arguments against vaccinations is that large pharmaceutical companies push for them in order to turn a profit. The idea is that vaccinations are not as necessary as the drug manufacturers claim, and since “most” people survive the disease in question, vaccines are only made to boost the profits of drug manufacturers.  

This argument is made more compelling by the fact that drug manufacturers do indeed profit when they develop and distribute a vaccine.  

What’s true, and what’s behind the argument against vaccines? 

What have vaccines accomplished? 

Thanks to widespread vaccine availability, smallpox has been eliminated around the world, person-to person transmission of polio has been virtually eliminated in developed countries, and deaths from diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus have gone down 99%. 

But if vaccines have done so much good, why is there so much anti-vaccination sentiment? Who benefits? 

Who benefits from vaccine alternatives? 

When parents are hesitant to vaccinate, many other companies stand to profit. But unlike pharmaceutical companies, these alternative medicine producers are not limiting their claims to what has been FDA-approved, or what has been substantiated by peer-reviewed research. 

Alternative therapies are a multi-billion dollar industry. But it isn’t just companies that sell “natural remedies” that profit from anti-vaccine sentiment. Social media platforms and websites make staggering amounts of money by allowing advertisers to seed their platforms with ads and native content (more on that later).   

Not only are these companies not held responsible for the truth of what they publish, they provide a great deal of demographic and behavioral data about you to help their advertisers deliver the ads most likely to provoke a reaction.  

If you’re a parent, you’re already a target for all kinds of ads. If you read an article on the web about alternative medicines, you become a bigger target for anti-vaccine groups. If you click an ad for one, the target on your back glows red hot. This targeting is why it can seem that you’re suddenly surrounded by a tide of messages urging you not to vaccinate. 

What is Native Content?
In magazines, news programs, websites, and social media it’s become common to present content that looks like authentic, but is really a clever advertisement. On television, this paid-for content used to be easy to spot (think infomercials) but today it’s buried right inside the morning news, your Facebook news feed, and more. It’s a booming business, so parents should read up on native ads so they can learn to spot them. 

How can I get to the truth of a claim?

When you examine any claim, first consider the old adage to “follow the money.”

• Primary source: Polarizing claims are often made by organizations with virtuous sounding names, but keep digging. Who is that organization, who directs it, and where does their funding come from?
• Original Source: Next, examine the source they’re citing in their claim. Quite often, web articles cite sources as proof that, when reviewed, offer no evidence to support the article’s claim.
• Source Quality: If an article makes a claim and the study it cites seems to agree with that claim, your next step should be to read more about the study. How large was it? Who funded it? Has it been peer-reviewed?

Consider Alternative Motives

Where there’s money to be made, there will politics. Unfortunately, vaccines have become a hot political topic since Covid-19. Using content to further entrench parents into one camp or another can make them easier to target come election season. Campaigns may take contributions from anti-vaccination groups if they identify that their voter base overlaps, and anti-vaccination groups may contribute to specific campaigns if they feel the candidate will advance their position on vaccinations.  

How do you know which vaccine or anti-vaccine claims to believe? 

With so much information, it can be easy to get overwhelmed. If you’re unsure who to believe, here are questions to ask yourself when you evaluate any claim:  

• Is the claim being made by a public or private entity? How do they make money? 
• Does the information come with cited sources you can read for yourself?  
• Does the cited source seem credible? 
• Does the information have a clear political bias, or does it try to avoid bias?  
• Is the cited source peer-reviewed? 
• Who funded any related studies? 

To reduce the flood of dubious claims, first install an ad blocker on your browser. This will greatly reduce—but not eliminate—your exposure to for-profit messages.  

Then try using Google Scholar instead of the general Google search box to research your questions. Google Scholar will return academic articles, and many of those articles will be available to read outside of a subscription database. The article’s Abstract will give you a sense of the information and the results of any studies conducted. 

You should also feel comfortable discussing any concerns or questions you have with your pediatrician. Bring articles or studies to your child’s appointment so you can ask specific questions. The more information you have, the more confident you can be in your vaccine choices.