Safety has always been an important issue
for vaccines because they are administered to
healthy persons to prevent disease, and tolerance
for adverse events following vaccines is
lower than for medications.5An overstated frequency
of adverse events is likely to have an
impact on public health decisionsweighing the
risks and benefits of vaccination.Ahigh priority
should be given in the future to presenting the
frequency of adverse events both in the placebo
(or control) group and in the vaccine group in
all reference documents.This practice is already
being followed formany newdrugs in thePhysicians’Desk
Reference in the United States6 and
in the Compendium of Pharmaceutical Specialty
in Canada,7 and the same approach should
be applied to vaccines.