Childhood Vaccines Explained: Are They Safe, Necessary, and Too Many?

Are childhood vaccines really necessary? Are they safe? And are babies getting too many too soon?

In this episode of Healthy Beginnings, Dr. Edgar Kalimba answers the most important—and most difficult—questions parents have about early childhood vaccines.

Vaccines are one of the most powerful tools in modern medicine, preventing millions of deaths every year. But confusion, fear, and misinformation continue to shape how parents think about them.

This episode breaks down the science clearly, helping you make informed decisions with confidence.

In this episode we discuss:

•  What vaccines actually do and why they matter 
•  Which vaccines are most important in early childhood 
•  Whether babies receive too many vaccines too soon 
•  The truth about vaccine safety and side effects 
•  Common myths—including vaccines and autism 
•  Why timing matters in the vaccine schedule 

This episode is designed to give parents clear, evidence-based understanding—without fear or confusion.

Healthy Beginnings offers clear and evidence-based conversations about children’s health, family wellbeing, and the systems that shape our lives. 

New episodes every Monday 

Have a question? Email: healthybeginningspodcast@gmail.com

Produced by LF Media

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I'm glad to have you back to the Healthy Beginnings podcast. I hope that you've enjoyed our previous conversation. And I hope you had a great weekend. Today, I would like to discuss a topic that is quite common and one that I get questions from parents on a regular basis. And that topic today is everything parents need to know about childhood vaccines. Few topics generate as much discussion and as much confusion, and unfortunately, as much misinformation as this one. And parents often ask, and rightly so, are vaccines really necessary? Are they safe? Are there too many too soon? What about side effects from vaccines like autism? And which vaccines matter most for my child? These are some of the questions and many more. And today we're going to tackle as many of these as possible. So the question now says: what do vaccines do and why they matter and what the evidence tells us? So we'll really stick to the facts and to the scientific evidence and to the medical experience as well. Vaccines remain one of the greatest tools that we have to protect our children. If you look at the global rates of vaccination, globally, the overall rate is estimated to be around 85%. So there is 15% of parents that are hesitant or are not able to vaccinate for one reason or another. If you look at the rates for Africa as a continent, it drops even further to about 75%, 75 to 76%. Again, part of it could be logistical and access, but it cannot be ignored that more and more parents are questioning if vaccines are really important. Thankfully, in Rwanda, our vaccination rates are still well above 90%. Actually, I think even up to 95%. So the question then is: why do vaccines matter? Let's start with the big picture and the facts. It's not questionable that vaccines save lives. And globally, vaccines prevent millions and millions of deaths every year. There are diseases that once killed or disabled huge numbers of children. Diseases like polio, measles, whooping cough, meningitis, and many others can now be prevented. Some of our listeners might not even recognize some of the diseases that are mentioned because they have become so rare, thankfully, because of the vaccines. And this is quite extraordinary because vaccines are such a powerful tool that we have. They prepare your child's immune system before the danger arrives. And what vaccines really do is that they teach the body how to recognize and fight an infection without waiting or exposing your child to suffer the disease itself. And of course, in babies and in young children, this matters tremendously. The earliest years of life are when children are most vulnerable. And I've said this in my previous conversations that the immune system of a newborn or a young baby, the first couple of weeks of life, is more vulnerable compared to an older infant, let's say who is about a year old. And the same child handles infections differently compared to older children and adults. So things that could be treatable easily in older children and adults are not necessarily the case for children. For example, pneumonia can become very severe very quickly in a young baby. Same with diarrhea or diarrheal diseases. You know, diarrhea can be life-threatening in a young baby much more quickly compared to an older child or an adult. Same with meningitis, can cause devastating injury quite quickly. So vaccines do help to prevent these outcomes. I'll give an example of Rwanda. If you look back, let's say our journey starting in 1994, just after the genocide against the Tutsi, for every 1,000 Rwand children who were born, um 300, actually more than 300, did not make it to their fifth birthday. This is what we refer to as the under-five mortality or under-five mortality rate. And thankfully, over the past three decades, we've made huge progress. These deaths of children before their fifth birthday have dropped by over 90%. We still have a big number. But we've made tremendous progress. So instead of having more than 300 children dying before their fifth birthday out of every thousand children, now it's between 35 and 40 for every 1,000 births. And obviously the huge progress and the gains are multifactorial. But there's no doubt that vaccines have played a huge role in improving the survival and the thriving of our children. And again, this is because Rwanda is one of the countries that have high vaccination rates, thankfully. But I see it more and more, parents questioning and being hesitant, because there's a lot of information online, there's a lot of questions, particularly in the northern hemisphere and in the west. But that's a growing concern also in our setup in our countries here in Africa. So now the question, the next question would be which vaccines are most important? And the short answer is all routine childhood vaccines matter. Every country on earth has a vaccination calendar and they differ from country to country, but most of the differences are very small. Overall, the key basic and important vaccines that are must-haves are pretty much the same across virtually most of the countries. So if I look at some of the vaccines that protect our children against the major threats, the first is diseases that kill or cause severe disability in infancy during the first year of life, and particularly during the first few weeks and months of life. And these include protection against pneumonia, which is an infection of the lungs and the respiratory system, or meningitis, which is an infection, an inflammation of the brain and the central nervous system, the structures around the brain. The third is diarrhea, particularly viral diarrhea, or what we frequently refer to as rotavirus diarrhea. And then there's other things like patarsis. The other name for patarsis is hooping cough, which causes pneumonia in young infants, particularly in the first year of life. And this can be really devastating and can actually lead to death. The other ones are polio. So in Rwanda, at birth, within the first few days, we typically give the polio drops and we give the TB vaccine called BCG. And the reason for this is that polio, although it has predominantly been eliminated in many countries, virtually in almost all the countries, there's always a threat for it to come back. And then there's others like misos and tetanus, which we actually still see despite our very high vaccination rates. Every now and then we see outbreaks of these. So this is a short list of examples of vaccines that are really, really foundational and fundamental. And then there's obviously vaccines that prevent outbreaks. And again, I can go back to the example of measles. Every now and then you hear that maybe the Ministry of Health is giving boosters for measles in schools. And the reason for this is that sometimes the vaccination rate, but also the vaccination response drops. And with these infections, viruses, and bacteria changing and mutating, sometimes we get outbreaks. And that's why every now and then, when especially there is a threat for outbreaks or outbreaks in neighboring countries, uh, the Ministry of Health would typically come back and give boosters to make sure that all children are protected as much as possible. And then, of course, there's vaccines that are what I would say newer. So there is, for example, what we had a few years ago with COVID, the COVID vaccines, which were deployed, and there was a lot of controversy around that. But overall, they played their role in protecting uh both the young and the old. And more recently, we have malaria vaccines, and these are not currently used in Rwanda because we are not necessarily one of the major disease-burdened countries in Africa with regard to malaria. But these are newer vaccines that keep changing, keep improving, with a goal to protect our young and even the older. So I mentioned that vaccination rates in Rwanda are generally high, well over 90%. And that is extremely critical because you've probably heard about something called herd immunity, hard as H-E-R-D, herd immunity. And what this really means is that when a country or a community or society has very high vaccination rates, where at least nine out of ten babies are vaccinated, that confers a broader protection to the community and society in general, including those that might miss the vaccines. So this is what is referred to as hard immunity. And that's why this topic is important today, to make sure that parents understand and actually make it a point that their babies, that your babies, that all the children are covered sufficiently and according to the national vaccination calendar. The other question that I often get is around timing. Why timing matters? Can I wait? What if I wait? What if I delay a little? Is that a negative thing for my baby? And it's important to note that timing matters. Timing is important. All these schedules, you know, for example, in Rwanda, where we give certain vaccines at birth, then you have to come back when your baby is six weeks, they get a group of vaccines, they get it again around 10 weeks, and then again around 14 weeks. So all these schedules are really intentional and they matter because when your child is at risk and when your immune system is ready to respond, that is typically the good time. And that's why most of these vaccines are actually given early on during the first weeks and months of life. So obviously and understandably, delays create vulnerability. If you wait or skip vaccines, that makes your baby vulnerable. And that's why it's important and critical that you ensure that you get vaccines for your baby and they are done on time and on schedule. Now, I would like to tackle what many parents are really worried about. So a couple of myths, things I've called myths. So we're going to bust some myths that are quite common. And let's do it directly and really based on facts. I've seen a lot of content online, and you have probably have seen this, and many parents have asked me this question. I've read, you know, here and there in the US, there is movements against vaccines and people commenting that vaccines could be contributing to autism. Now I'll tell you, based on the available evidence and facts and scientific literature, uh, the strongest scientific evidence that is available actually says that this is false. Vaccines do not cause autism. This question has been studied repeatedly and in multiple countries, in different communities, different contexts, and in very large populations. And the evidence really does not support a causal link between routine childhood vaccines and autism. And particularly, there's some reports around a vaccine called MMR. MMR is measles, mumps, and rubella. It's a combined vaccine with three uh with three vaccines. Uh, and we give it around nine months and give it again at 15 to 18 months. And again, there's no evidence that MMR causes autism. So this has been studied really, really carefully and has been examined, and the answers remain consistent. There's no credible scientific evidence that vaccines cause autism. The second myth is my baby is getting too many vaccines and too soon. Can I wait and give the vaccines when my baby's older and can handle them better? Again, this is also misleading because with or without vaccines, your baby actually encounters thousands of immune challenges every single day. From the air that we breathe, we take in particles and antigens and bacteria and fungi and pollutants and all kinds of things. So these elements actually do trigger our immune system in different ways, not just from breathing, but also from what we eat, the food we eat, the drinks, whatever we take into our body is a mixture and a combination of many, many things. And all of these challenge our immune system. So when your baby or your toddler is running around a house and they are touching the soil, they are touching the grass, they're touching the walls, and exploring the world around them, which is a fantastic and good thing, they interact with a diverse microbial environment. There's microbes virtually everywhere that we can't see with our naked eye. And all of these do challenge the immune system of our children. So the answer is no. You know, the vaccines that we give, yes, they challenge the immune system. That is what they are meant to do, and they prepare the immune system to fight better against infections. So vaccines are not too many and they are not too soon. The immune challenge posed by vaccines is tiny compared with everyday life, and schedules are designed to protect our children when the protection is needed most. The third myth is natural immunity is better if I don't vaccinate my child, they get exposed to all kinds of infections, and they will develop immunity. You may be right to an extent that is true, but the question is at what cost? Are you prepared to expose your child and not use such a powerful, good, effective tool and rather have them have pneumonias and seizures from fever and potentially brain inflammation from meningitis, paralysis, even death. So I think in my mind and in my convictions taking vaccines is a much less cost compared to waiting out for your child to be vulnerable to all these different infections that I've highlighted as examples. So vaccines aim to give protection without making your child pay the price of the disease. And let me say here that no single vaccine has a protection of 100% efficacy. Most of them are probably between 95 to 98%, including the boosters that we often give on the calendar. Meaning that if you vaccinate with a pneumococo vaccine against pneumonia, for every 100 children, 98 children will be protected. Meaning there's children who are still going to get pneumonia, regardless of being vaccinated or not. But these are a tiny, tiny minority. And even when they do, they fight better. And typically they get less severe disease and will fight better because the immune system has been primed and has been ready to fight. In fact, most of us take paracetamol and anti-inflammatory zone frequently, whether for our children or for us as adults. And if you take even an example of parasitamol, the most commonly used drug, they are side effects. You know, if you take it more frequently, or um if for one reason or another, you could get your liver inflamed because parasitamol can be toxic to the liver. And yet we use it on a daily basis, and it's generally very, very safe when used appropriately in the right doses. So this can be applied to vaccines as well. Vaccines are among the more Carefully monitored medical products that we have. And most side effects are mild. You know, your baby will get sore, they will get a fever, they'll get fussy for two to three days after the vaccine. But typically this wears off and the babies generally do well. So, regardless on how you look at it, the risk from the disease is much, much greater compared to the risk from the vaccines. So, if vaccines are effective and safe, why does misinformation persist? And in fact, why does misinformation seem to be increasing? Because fear actually spreads faster than facts. And uncertainty makes parents vulnerable to bad information, which is why trusted sources matter, which is why it's important to be empowered and equipped. And particularly, I come back to Africa in our context here in Africa on this continent. This matters very, very importantly because we still have a big number of children that actually die before their fifth birthday, under five mortality, which I referred to. Part of it is related to babies who are born with different kinds of problems and actually die within the first month of life. But in Africa, vaccine-preventable diseases remain a major burden. We still have children who die from pneumonia, from diarrhea, from all these diseases that are actually covered and protected by readily available vaccines. So this is really about preventing real illness and preventing morbidity around our children being sick from common infections. Again, I reiterate that when immunization rates fall, the diseases return. History has taught us this very clearly, and we are seeing that in different parts of the world. And that's why we should take this topic very seriously. And even the parents that I speak to on a regular basis that have these concerns, I typically usually, generally and intentionally take time to educate them and to have this conversation and to really, really give facts instead of fear that is generally very biased and unfounded. So before we close, I want to speak directly to parents who are still uncertain. Because hesitation really often comes from love. You want to protect your child and you want to be sure. So that's in essence a very good instinct. But protection also means following the best evidence that we have. And on vaccines, I guarantee you the evidence is strong. It's rock, solid, strong. So vaccines have really changed the history of childhood, have drastically improved survival. They have turned once feared diseases into preventable ones, and they have saved millions and millions of children. Many of us are healthy adults simply because we had a chance to be vaccinated and protected against all these infections around us. And vaccines remain one of the safest and most effective interventions in modern medicine. So if you take one thing from our conversation today, let it be this. Vaccinating your baby on time is one of the most powerful ways to protect their health, their future, and even to protect the children around them. And this is not an opinion. This is from decades of evidence. And that is why vaccination really, really matters. Before we leave, I would like to answer some of the questions that were sent to us by the listeners.

SPEAKER_00 26:45

First question from Jennifer, 35, and living in Kigali. I recently went back to work and had to leave my baby with a caregiver. I feel guilty and constantly worried. Can that separation affect the baby emotionally?

SPEAKER_01 26:58

In Rwanda and in many countries in Africa, mothers return to work post-partum after giving birth, usually after the third month of your baby's life. And I agree, this is pretty soon from a personal opinion. And this is why some countries that have much more means and much more resources actually give maternity leave for nine months, even up to 12 months in some countries. So yes, it's a difficult time leaving your three months or four months old baby and spending most of your uh daytime at work. On the other side, you need to make a life and a living, and work is important. So generally, I think it depends on how you mentally and emotionally prepare for this. I think generally, if uh you use your time at home sufficiently, meaning that you breastfeed your baby when you're at home. And I've seen more and more mothers actually uh expressing expressing breast milk so that their babies can actually feed on pumped breast milk even for the hours that they are away at work. And also when there is a possibility to actually express or pump your breast milk at work, that helps you mentally and emotionally and physically, so that even while you're away, you're actually indirectly taking care of your baby, you're pumping breast milk for them. Depending on what you do, your work, how far away it is, I've seen that most working mothers either have a late start or have a break in the middle of the day or have an early break, uh, especially the first year of life. So generally, it should not cause an emotional um burden. It should not cause um excessive stress as long as it's handled appropriately. Importantly, also is that uh you should get as much support as you can, whether it's a house helper, whether it's a family member that can help to take care of your baby while you're away. These are the realities of modern life. These are the realities of our life, family, work, balance. And nowhere does it matter as much as the first months of your baby's life. So I think it's all about balance and about context, what you can and cannot do, and especially ensuring that you do not carry unnecessary guilt. Because as a mother, you're looking out for your baby and you're doing what is best for your baby, including going to work and making sure that you're providing for your family.

SPEAKER_00 30:16

Last question from Paul, 40, and living in Kigali. My wife naturally spends more time with a baby, especially with breastfeeding. Sometimes I feel left out or unsure of my role. How can fathers be more involved in a meaningful way early on?

SPEAKER_01 30:30

That's a very interesting question. And I like this question, especially because it's very real, it's very practical, and it's also relatable. I'm a father of three and I've been through uh those seasons as well, and it's it's very, very, very relevant as a question. So we generally encourage both spouses, husband and wife, or man and woman, to walk the journey together from the beginning. And this really starts from early in pregnancy. I see it often in uh the hospital environment or in the clinics. For every 10 mothers who come for their prenatal consultation, you might see one or two dads, maybe three. There's some dads who are very good, very committed, and there are some others who are not present, whether it's um beyond their control or not. This is often the reality. So the mothers are generally on their own, frequently as part of this journey. Now, when babies are born, it's actually overwhelming for everybody. Uh, everything changes. You have this newborn in the house. Uh, night long, the mother or the caretaker has to feed the baby around the clock, and that gets daunting and draining. And I look at this as an opportunity for you to actually participate. The person who asks this question, the dad. And there's a couple of ways. One, um, you need to make sure that you support your wife and she gets enough rest. That is one way that you can meaningfully participate and actually support your family. What do I mean by this? So, if the mother is taking a rest, a break, napping, and the baby wakes up, that's usually a good opportunity for the father to step in and give the mother enough time to rest, to sleep a bit more, and get much and well-needed rest. And then you take care of the baby, you change them, you feed them. Uh, and that's why more and more we actually encourage mothers to pump breast milk when they have sufficient amounts, so that daddy can actually feed the baby while mommy is resting. That is one way. The other way is obviously to have a regular conversation and make sure that uh no one is left out. This is not just for dads, but also for older siblings, especially if you have a preschooler, a younger child, and then you have a newborn. This happens all the time, and all the attention goes to the newborn, and the older child is left out. So this can cause stress, it can cause uh even milestone regression, it can cause temper tantrums, um, and it can actually even go up to fracturing the family. So it's that balance, it's that awareness, it's that intentionality, those conversations from both sides, from the mother and from the father, and to make sure that you you speak candidly and genuinely about any discomforts on both ends. I typically see and really believe that when people are committed to each other and when they communicate candidly how they feel, how they see things, their observations, and they talk about these things, by and large, you'll be able to strike a balance where the exhausted mother gets enough support, and the seemingly left out dad actually plays a critical role in supporting their spouse and supporting the family in general.

SPEAKER_00 34:45

This podcast is for general informational and educational purposes only. Do not make health decisions without consulting your doctor. This podcast is brought to you by LF Media, home of great African podcasts.