Be a Germ Fighting Champion

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McLaren Health Care employs primary care physicians and specialists at convenient locations with varying hours and same-day appointments where available to ensure your healthcare is covered for all stages of life.

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3 ways to shield your kids from germs

Children are exposed to thousands of germs every day. This happens through the food they eat, the air they breathe, and the things they put in their mouth.

  1. Teach your kids the importance of handwashing.

    Let them see you washing your hands when soiled or before preparing food or eating. This way they learn to do it too.

  2. Stay home.

    Keep kids home when they are sick to limit spreading germs to others.

  3. Follow the recommended vaccine schedule for your child.

    Getting vaccines provides the best protection from potentially serious diseases for ourselves and others. Babies are born with immune systems that can fight most germs, but some germs cause serious or even deadly diseases a baby can’t handle.

Are vaccines safe for my child?

Before a new vaccine is ever given to people, extensive lab testing is done. Once testing in people begins, it can still take years before clinical studies are complete and the vaccine is licensed.

After a vaccine is licensed, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Centers for Disease Control (CDC), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and other federal agencies continue routine monitoring and investigate any potential safety concerns.

Vaccines are very safe. Most vaccine adverse events are minor and temporary, such as a sore arm or mild fever. More serious adverse events occur rarely (on the order of one per thousands, to one per millions of doses).

Source: National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (2023, July 19). Vaccines are safe.

Understanding what goes into vaccines

We become immune to (or protected from) a disease when our bodies create specific antibodies to fight that disease. Vaccines contain ingredients that help your body build this immunity. Vaccines use very small amounts of antigens to help your child’s immune system recognize and learn to fight serious diseases. Antigens are the parts of a germ that cause the body’s immune system to go to work.

To keep the vaccine safe and long-lasting. Certain ingredients help keep vaccines safe from contamination and toxins. Others, like stabilizers, help vaccines stay effective for a long time.

To make the vaccine more effective. All vaccine ingredients help to make a vaccine as effective as possible, while being safe. Ingredients like aluminum salt help boost the body’s response to the vaccine.

Source: National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (2019, August 5). What’s in Vaccines?

Common Myths

Source: World Health Organization. (2020, October 19). Vaccines and immunization: Myths and misconceptions.