http://www.politifact.com/georgia/statements/2015/sep/23/ben-carson/carson-wrong-vaccine-claim/ said:
The CDC recommends a series of shots to protect children against 15 infectious diseases. They are measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, Human papillomavirus (HPV), Haemophilus influenza type B (Hib), polio, influenza (flu), rotavirus, and pneumococcal disease.
Most everyone likely knows about measles, the flu and the two types of hepatitis – and that all of those diseases can be deadly.
But of the others, are any not lethal or, at the least, not crippling?
Hardly. Several experts told us no such disease is prevented by those on the childhood immunization schedule.
"Every one of those can kill or cripple or maim you," said Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatrics professor at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and one of three inventors of the rotavirus vaccine.
And just what is rotavirus? Think of it as a particularly nasty stomach flu – one estimated to have killed 453,000 children under the age of 5 in 2008, most in developing countries, according to the World Health Organization.
The others:
Mumps – Death is rare, and happens usually in adults. But complications of childhood mumps include deafness and sterility in both genders.
Rubella – A relatively mild virus that usually leads to severe birth defects and blindness and can cause miscarriage and stillbirth in expectant mothers.
Chicken pox – Another relatively mild virus that killed 100-150 children annually before vaccines.
Diphtheria – Once a major cause of death among U.S. children – including a record 15,520 in 1921 and the terror behind the original Iditarod sled-dog race in Alaska, this powerful disease killed a 6-year-old boy in Spain last year.
Tetanus – This bacteria kills up to 20 percent of those infected, with many suffering from spasms severe enough to break bones.
Whooping cough – A brutal disease that killed 20 in 2012, including 15 infants too young for the vaccine. The World Health Organization estimates it caused 89,000 deaths worldwide in 2012.
HPV – The more controversial of all vaccines, largely because it prevents a sexually transmitted virus that can cause several types of cancer which can be deadly, even with treatment.
HiB – A bacteria that can cause several invasive diseases, including meningitis, which that killed about 1,000 American children annually before vaccines. In 2008, it killed an estimated 199,000 children worldwide.
Pneumococcal disease – One of the leading causes of illness in children that kills about 5 percent of those infected and leaves some survivors with permanent injury.
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