Anyone on here never been vaccinated?

[WildApples]

I'm interested to know if anyone on here has NEVER been vaccinated, I haven't, for anything , and consider myself to be one of the healthiest people I know. Yes, I did have the usual childhood measles, mumps, chickenpox etc, but I have quite a strong belief that having these has made my immune system far stronger.
My doctor commented on how little I have on my medical records, and barely any of it is virus/disease related, its all physical stuff like a waxy ear, constipation, and one time when my left boob went numb because I'd trapped a nerve.
Anyway, I'd just like to hear from people (fairly sure I will with such a controversial topic...) And please don't just say things like "get it done" without offering your own reasons why/why not, I'm not interested in just blithely agreeing with whatever the media/government/pharmaceuticals tell me. Though tempted as I was to go stock up on Tamiflu...
So, I'm off to work now, in advance appreciation of your responses....

[KatyN]

This is not how mass vacinations work.

Because the majority of people around you have been vacinated, you will not have been exposed to diseases. If you went to a country where the majority of people had not been vacinated, you would catch everything going.

By choosing to not be vacinated, you are assuming everyone else around you will be. The issue comes when a large group of people decide not to be vacinated. Then the disease has more of a chance to 'get in' and will effect all those not vacinated. For example after the MMR scare lots of parents decided not to vacinate their children. There has been an epidemic of mumps - especially amongst universtiy students (when all the non vacinated people get together!)

In my opinion, vacination is something you should do for the health of the society you live in. It is not for your own personal health.

k

[FiloPasty]

Agree with KatyN

www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/dear-parents-you-are-being-lied

Love this article linked above.

[OddBoots]

Tamiflu has been found not to be effective through science, the method by which the common vaccinations have found to be effective.

Congratulations on benefiting from the herd immunity created by the vaccination of others, maybe if you'd really like to test your own defences you could go and live for a few years in a country where people don't have the same access to vaccination.

[Lorelei353]

A 'strong belief' is not exactly scientific. It's great that you're generally healthy and well but that's likely to be the result of diet, lifestyle, where you live, genetics and of course, herd immunity to major disease. There's nothing to say that your lack of immunisation has had any effect, or that someone else similarly unvaccinated would enjoy the same good health.

[Gennz]

I didn't have the "usual" childhood "mumps and measles" OP, because I am lucky enough to live in a first world country and benefit from widespread vaccinations. I did have chickenpox as a child because it's not routinely vaccinated against and isn't a high risk infection. I also have excellent medical records, no medical issues at all in my 32 years. Fancy that.

I also benefited from the MMR shot at age 12 and am still immune so luckily I don't have to worry about my unborn child being affected by a rubella infection, for example being born blind in one eye as my best mate's dad was.

[Gennz]

www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/8199964/We-were-hippies-about-it

[NotCitrus]

Having had measles, mumps and chicken pox will protect you in future from measles, mumps, and chicken pox. Which weren't vaccinated against in my childhood in the UK anyway.
They won't have helped your immune system recognise the totally different viruses that cause say diphtheria, meningitis B, tetanus, polio... Luckily for you all those are incredibly rare in the UK and enough people are vaccinated to prevent them from spreading.

Your medical history sounds quite normal for a youngish adult - what makes you think you have a "stronger" immune system? While being sceptical of official messages is reasonable, you need to apply the same scepticism to anyone suggesting vaccines don't prevent disease - which they do.

I didn't have childhood illnesses except whooping cough as a toddler, which my parents are still traumatized about 40 years later, then chicken pox in late teens when it went round my boarding school - it's rare in SE Asia so loads of students with no immunity.
So after ds was born I had the MMR as measles outbreaks were happening locally. A friend of mine was blind from having measles age 3 and a friend's
baby was very ill with it at the time, being too young for the vaccine.

[Martorana]

"but I have quite a strong belief that having these has made my immune system far stronger. "

What do you base this "quite strong belief" on?

[TondelayoSchwarzkopf]

I did have the usual childhood measles, mumps, chickenpox etc

How old are you? Measles and mumps haven't been 'usual' for a UK childhood since the 60s.

I have never had any viral diseases apart from colds and Chickenpox (which is not vaccinated against publicly) because I've had all my jabs.

Sounds to me that far from being specially healthy you've had more diseases than most.

[Possiblyorange]

What everyone else said - herd immunity is keeping you healthy, not the fact that you haven't had vaccines.

FWIW I have had all the 'standard' vaccines for my age (early 30s) and also have a very robust immune system - have probably been to the doctors 6 times in the last 15 years, apart from pregnancy related stuff.

[DramaQueenofHighCs]

Your lack of vaccinations has nothing to do with your overall health!! It's other lifestyle choices and herd immunity that are doing that!

[Cinnamoncookie]

My DB and I both had rubella and mumps when we were at primary school in the mid 80s, and it was nothing unusual.

I've had all the usual vaccinations apart from TB, which no-one in my class at senior school was given, but I've never been able to work out why. It does occasionally worry me, given the incidence of TB in the UK has risen slightly in recent years

[TondelayoSchwarzkopf]

Yeah you are right cinnamon, Mumps was only vaccinated against in the late 80s. Apologies.

[ikeaismylocal]

My vaccination record is patchy, I choose to get vaccinated as an adult as I can't see the negatives to vaccination but I can very clearly see the negatives to not vaccinating.

My dp's aunt has no eyes, she was exposed to rubella in the womb.

Even if I believed that I would be healthier without vaccinations I wouldn't risk exposing my children to dangerous infections whilst in the womb or in their early life.

I also had measles and chicken pox, I am also in good health but I don't put my good health down to lack of vaccinations in childhood I put it down yo luck, the fact I'm in my 20s and possibly my low risk lifestyle.

How would you feel if your newborn died because of contracting whooping cough from you? How would you feel if your baby was born without eyes because you had rubella in pregnancy? Is your opinion that your healthier than average thanks to no vaccinations worth that risk?

[NCISaddict]

I wasn't vaccinated as a child and had all the childhood illnesses, was quite poorly with measles and had rubella twice. I had loads of colds, coughs etc as a child but didn't go to a doctor at all until I was 18 + so haven't got a lot on my records. I have since been vaccinated against everything that I'm not immune to including Hep B and flu and rarely go to the GP, my DC's have been vaccinated and are rarely ill and rarely went to the GP for routine childhood illnesses. I don't think there is any connection between the two events.

[Boudica1990]

Vaccinations are important imo and o thank everyone around me who has been vaccinated as it protects me.

I am one of those rare 5% that vaccination does not work for, my immune system will not attack the altered form. I have to get the virus to then be immune, my immune system has to have a full blown response to make the memory cells. If it wasn't for everyone around me who was vaccinated I would be shitting myself.

I have been vaccinated but hold no immunity, I have a th scare yet no TB immunity, I had the MMR no immunity but am lucky enough to have never had measles,mumps, rubella, TB. The only worry I genuine have is tetanus, this can happen from a wound so I don't benefit from herd immunity so I don't cover or close any wounds I clean them 3 to 4 times a day with neat bcp if a Dr feels they are deep enough.

I thank society for keeping me and the other 5% ers healthy.

May I add I've never had a cold or the flue and I'm 24, the only illness I have ever had is chicken pox.

[SnakeyMcBadass]

I was born in 1978, and got measles, mumps, rubella and whooping cough. I think I was pre vaccine? Anyway, my eyesight was damaged by my dose of measles. I'm not blind, but it certainly deteriorated. I respect and understand why some parents choose not to vaccinate their DC, but mine were both vaccinated. Not everyone gets through 'childhood illnesses' unscathed.

[TondelayoSchwarzkopf]

Vaccines were widely used for measles, whooping cough & rubella by 1978. I don't know if I was vaccinated as a baby against rubella but I definitely was at puberty (in the mid-80s). I know that a vaccine existed before then as well but can't find anything about whether it was on the UK infant schedule pre-MMR.

There was a mid-1970s scare about the WC vaccine which I think resulted in low take up and a resurgence.

[Famzilla]

You think you have a stronger immune system because you haven't had any vaccines, and you think your beliefs outweigh years of proper research by proper scientists.

Riiiiiight...

[HolidayCriminal]

Anecdotes anecdotes anecdotes...

Friend was never jabbed. She has loads of stories about how she suffered with VPDs, mumps is her number one horror, I think. Has had somewhat delicate over all health but turns out she has a slight genetic abnormality to explain that.

There are a lot of people in my extended family who were never jabbed. Some of them have ended up with things like deafness or asthma as a result.

I was jabbed with the usuals as a child & apparently the doctor told my mother off when I was 15 saying he should have seen me at least once in the previous 11 yrs. "But why?" puzzled my mom. "The kid is never sick!"

[BioSuisse]

I was never vaccinated as a child. At the time my parents were close to a Dr friend who strongly advised against it. My first vaccinations were for typhoid and yellow fever at 16 when i travelled to Africa.

I had various childhood diseases including Mumps, Measles, Scarlett Fever and Chicken pox.

As an adult i am very healthy. I hardly get any illnesses and when i do they pass quickly, colds last just a couple of days.

That said, i have chosen to have my DCs vaccinated against everything.

[Martorana]

1944girl- it's good to know that we now realise that febrile convulsions rarely if ever have any after effects and your son could now be protected by vaccines. It must have been a real worry for you then, thought.

[nldm1]

What KatyN said..
Me, DH and both DC have all the vaccinations going and are all in very good health and have always been. I'm glad we're all protected for the sake of ourselves and those around us.
IMO it's actually quite selfish to not get vaccinated. What if you, with your good general health, catch something that you would easily get over, but you pass it on to someone who cannot be vaccinated or someone with a weakened immune system?
What is a couple of weeks laid up for you could be life threatening to another.

[bauhausfan]

I was tutoring a boy last night (his family are from Pakistan) who told me that his Grandmother had 10 children - measles came along and 7 of them died. Imagine burying 7 of your children. Thank God for the MMR I say.