I’m not a doctor. I’m just a reasonably educated lay person who has allergies herself as well as allergic kids. I know that allergies are all about your immune system misfiring and treating common substances as if they are dangerous invaders.

So far, so good.

Recently, I read that doctors are encouraging parents to have their children vaccinated, even if they are at risk of allergies. Researchers claim that there is no relationship between vaccination and the development of allergies.

Then I checked out the study itself. It looked at a group of immunized infants between the ages of 1 and 2, who already had atopic dermatitis and a family history of allergy. Researchers looked at the effect of immunization in the first 12 months.

The first thing I don’t understand is the very short timeline. Allergies may develop in infancy, but they also might not show up for many years. So, it seems rash to decide that there is no effect when the timeline is short.

The second thing that I don’t understand is that there was no comparison group. Virtually all medical studies are measured against the gold standard of “double blind”. Infants were not randomly assigned to a group that got vaccinations versus a group that didn’t. In fact, the study did not look at a single unvaccinated child.

So how could they conclude that there is no relationship between vaccines and allergies?

Since vaccines directly affect the baby’s developing immune system, they could be helping to sensitize kids to allergens. (Remember that allergy rates are going up in developed countries, which not only have the best hygiene but also the highest rates of vaccination.) It’s a plausible theory, yet no one seems to be looking at it.

I’m not against vaccines in principle. But I do wonder why studies that look at vaccines never seem to compare unvaccinated populations with vaccinated populations. Wouldn’t that answer the question of whether there is a problem once and for all?

After all, it’s not like medical research hasn’t made mistakes. Let’s not forget Vioxx or Thalidomide. These were deemed safe and effective too.