Parents choosing not to vaccinate their children

The Covid vaccine saved a lot of lives, prevented a lot of people getting really ill , ensured hospitals didn’t get overrran and enabled lock downs to end

Most measles cases are vaccine strains or brought in from abroad. For the record I'm not anti measles vaccine. However the crazy hyper propaganda we experienced during covid is to blame for people's justifiable scepticism.

This.

Tic Toc and other social media sites share so much misinformation. Some people are dumb, they don't deserve children. Imagine in 2025 having children in hospital or dying for a perfectly preventable illness!

I had the first MMR jab in 1989.
A couple of days later, I started to get quite ill. Mum called the Dr to the house, he said it was just a virus, it would pass. It didn't, she had him out again and he actually got a bit cross, repeated the advice. Then my Mum put a cold flannel on my head, cue a fever fit. Turned out I had Meningitis, but without the typical rash. I very nearly died, only time my Mum ever saw my Dad cry. They believe it was caused by the live mumps vaccine. I was lucky, I was largely unscathed, the little boy in at the same time, with the same thing, died. Our family doctor told my Mum to never let me have the second dose. But that was 36 years ago
My younger sister is fully vaccinated, as are her boys and my girls.
This thread has actually inspired me to phone the drs later and see if they'll advise if I can have it now. Or at least the measles vaccine.
Even that experience didn't turn our family anti vax. It was unfortunate and traumatic, but compared to how they'd have felt if we'd have contracted something we could have been vaccinated against, then subsequently died? Not a chance I'd take
There will always be outliers. Things the medical professionals can't know for certain. Maybe I would have gotten Meningitis anyway. Maybe I already had the beginning of Mumps
Incidentally, my uncle walks with a bad limp. He had Polio when he was little. We need to eradicate these illnesses

Excellent post @PepsiMaxCherryAddict
I also think that (most) anti-vaxx sentiment has nothing to do with scientific knowledge or research, and little to do with poor communication from the scientific and medical community.

Most young anti-vaxxing parents will not have heard of thalidomide or other medical scandals.

It seems largely driven by trends, influencers, conspiracy theorists and other unqualified or corrupt scaremongers.

There’s no way the average Joe understands the make up of vaccines, nor would they be interested despite claiming they would and that they need to be told. The only people who should be concerned with the make up of vaccines are the scientists who create them and medical professionals who have studied it in depth.

Conspiracy theorists and anti vaxxers in general are so rigid in their thinking that it wouldn’t matter what they were told about the make up of a vaccine, it wouldn’t be believed or even attempted to be understood. I remember during Covid someone posted the composition of an apple on Facebook and asked if anyone would eat it, just to prove a point. Anti vaxxers said no, too many chemicals 😂🙄. They don’t have the intelligence or interest to care.

It’s funny though how many of these people are quite happy to sniff lines of coke cut with God knows what up their noses on a Friday night without a second thought, or pop random pills. Walking contradictions. The cognitive dissonance is strong.

Who’s this ‘we’ @Kissedbyfire1 ?
I have experienced all of that. Everyone I know understands they may feel a bit crap after vaccinations and schedules appropriately for it. Vaccination was taught in science (and to a degree in history) when I was at school and I’ve seen a fair bit about it in the media ever since.

I think we don’t communicate enough recognition of people’s concerns and experiences around vaccines. We don’t acknowledge that some vaccines do make you feel poorly for a day or two after administration while countering that with how much more poorly you or your loved one would be with the disease.
I had to be vaccinated against Hep A a few years ago and boy that was a horrible one, but having seen my loved one almost die of the virus, I knew that it could have been much worse.
We don’t discuss the science behind vaccination or the makeup of vaccines. All of this would help people understand the risks and benefits better. Too much paternalism in vaccine comms.

Well that's when you do lose credibility
Of you look at the UK approach compared to others maybe you'll get a sense of reality and perspective. It really wasn't as bad as you make out
If you cant, and you can't understand the different situations for other jabs. With the support of proper information and education. Well that's on you

Anti vaxxers are anti social

Yes vaccination should be prerequisite for nursery.& school. If you want all the benefits of society then you can’t put others at risk because you’re an anti vaxxer.

I live in Liverpool my baby is 6 months , but was 9 weeks prem. I'm looking into getting the meseals jab privately for him to tide him over until his one year jabs .

I have a 5 year old , and want to be able to take him out over summer without worrying . It's horrible.

And I would ordinarily agree - but the approach led even the most pro-vax people to question everything they'd ever believed about vaccines - yes, including the MMR.

To them, it now doesn't matter what its for; the trust has been broken.

If you read my posts you know I am sympathetic in many cases, where the benefits aren't as clear cut or eg covid vaccines when pregnant, needle phobia etc

But those arguments just don't cut it with something like measles. That's when you lose credibility

Because by challenging the Status Quo it's like you're suggesting you 'know better' than other mums.

Yes, here we are. WE did take responsibility by speaking out about it at the time, only to be shut down.
It seems that those who weren't listening then, are largely the ones complaining now.
If those people want to blame someone for the vaccine scepticism we're seeing now, they'd do well to look a little closer to home...

I can understand her reasoning. Her DS was hospitalised after a vaccination reaction and was very ill. She has a natural fear that it may happen again. That doesn’t make her an idiot or a moron. It makes her a frightened mother.

I was merely saying that if the jabs were offered separately they may get a better take up. Not sure why I get abused for that suggestion.

Just a tip for anyone concerned about the triple MMR vaccine. I got DS privately vaccinated against chickenpox as soon as the clinic was willing to do it. (Pox made me horribly unwell as a child and I think it's dreadful that the UK does not routinely vaccinate). A couple of weeks later we rocked up to his first MMR vaccination appointment and were told that he needed measles, mumps and rubella as separate vaccinations because less than 4 weeks had passed since his pox vaccine. So it is possible to get the individual vaccinations on the NHS if you schedule a pox vaccine in the 4 weeks prior to the first MMR appointment - and the cost to get a chickenpox vaccine privately is less than the private cost of the 3 separate vaccinations for measles, mumps and rubella.

DS is still autistic though! <shakes fist at Andrew Wakefield>

Similarly, a close friend (since childhood) of my DD's partner collapsed and died a couple of days after his first COVID vaccination. A fit, healthy man of 27. (Not in this country)

No way was DDs partner going to have the vaccine, and he was then very mistrustful of any official advice, guidance and rules. I didn't blame him.

However many thousands more would have died if not for the vaccine.

I knew a girl who was damaged by the polio vaccine. However, I understood that she was incredibly unlucky, and that the vaccine prevents far more people from getting the disease than are damaged by it.

You cannot “meaningfully debate” vaccinations when it’s personal feelings against scientific fact. You might as well say you don’t personally believe in gravity, that is how you sound.

The thing is, though, this is not a matter of opinion, it's a matter of fact.
Around 1000 people per year, mostly children, died of measles before there was a vaccine; now it's around 1or 2.

The chances of being injured or badly affected by a vaccine are tiny. The chances of dying (if unvaxxed) of a disease are MUCH higher.

It's a small chance of injury vs. a larger chance of death.

It's completely illogical, senseless and irresponsible to plump for the second option by not vaccinating your child.

I have no words.

We grasp your feelings perfectly well. We understand them (or at least I do).
Your feelings don’t change the facts though. Despite terribly sad (and devastating for the families concerned) vaccine damage it is statistically safer t9 vaccinate. It is a bit silly to allow feelings to trump actual evindence. I wouldn’t personally use the terms moronic or idiotic, but it does suggest a lack of education on this matter at least.
Not sure what all the other terms you listed have to do with this discussion.

If vaccination rates continue falling you may well live to see ever increasing numbers children die of preventable disease “in RL”.