Why aren't people vaccinating against measles?

[TableTurners]

Just read about the measles outbreak in Enfield and Haringey at the moment - just wondering why a lot of people aren't vaccinating again measles these days?

Apparently the UK has lost it's measles free status or something, just seems weird to me that we're letting something old fashioned like this go rife again.

I did say ‘and’ ‘or’ because it falls in that bucket

not educated
not bright
not educated and not bright

But no clever, educated person would fail to vaccinate.

They aren’t at all

You don’t need to search for info on vaccine risks- it’s on the NHS website for each vaccine.

I looked at the risk of the vaccine v the risk of the disease - and vaccinated my knowledge kids - at the height of the MMR madness

They do!!! They think they know better and take individual decisions to the nth degree

they are worst offenders - there is an example up thread

Interesting. What’s your experience?

Auto correct 😂 all of my kids - although they are now fairly knowledgeable 😂

Super educated people seeking to think they know more than medical professionals - like the parents of that boy that parents took from hospital - Asha was it? For treatment abroad

I know that seems to have worked out (or so they report) but also makes more parents think they can defy medics and don’t their way

Anti-Vaxxers. 🤷‍♀️.

anti vaxxers rely on vaccination to keep them safe ironically: through herd immunity.

They're thick as shit. DH was deafened from having measles as a toddler. This was before the vaccine was introduced.

It's because the level of thickness in the wider population is scarily high. Antivaxxers being amongst the worst of them.

It’s not this at all

Good point, this type of person makes up a section of the anti-vax population. Probably more in urban environments (my experience is more rural) so accounts for the N Ldn outbreak.

it doesn’t help saying parents are stupid. if you were wavering and read this thread would that language make it more or less likely that you would do further research and ask health professionals for advice? Most parents want the best for their children including the ones that end up on anti vax sites.

I think catch up vaccines should be offered in schools (with opt out). Much as I’d like to see requirements for vaccines to attend state school I expect it would take quite a long time so this gives a chance for catch up for parents that want it. The issue might be that parents don’t know whether their child is up to date.

It appears from Royal College of paediatrics and child health that a lot is logistics rather than not wanting to get vaccinations.
https://www.rcpch.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2025-06/vaccination-in-uk-access-uptake-equity_policy-report-quick-read-2025.pdf

As someone with a vaccinated child, I think it’s sinister that we pander to people being ignorant, selfish and ill informed to the point of allowing children to die or become disabled.

That’s what always happens/happened IRL - crackpot in the pub corner is tolerated but laughed at so they probably don’t share their views everywhere. Once there’s a global ‘pub’ there’s going to be many, many more who agree with you and then you can all gain traction and get these ideas more mainstream - (get to be the US health person even!)

We are having a discussion not trying to do a campaign

There are quite a number of people on the spectrum in my extended family. I find it insulting and infuriating that people who have fallen for the myth that vaccinations cause autism are so worried about that that they would risk their children getting life-threatening illnesses and illnesses with a high chance of causing long-term symptoms and disability instead. Some people on the spectrum will be unable to live independently but a lot can live good lives, with the right support and understanding.

But of course it is a distraction to mention this because there is absolutely no link. The strongest evidence for what causes autism is genetics.

Agreed. They all put it in google and think the nonsense forums they find are more accurate than the word of qualified scientists and doctors.

I don't see the point of this thread.

No one is interested in hearing actual reasons from individuals who may not have vaccinated and I would be astonished if anybody came on to try and discuss their reasons.

Is anybody actually interested in exploring why people might make this choice or is this thread just an opportunity to call people who think differently names and state they're stupid/ irresponsible?

There have been some exploration around why some groups are vaccine hesitant : https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd6geyjd15lo is one of them.

Another here : https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4869767/ Exploring the Reasons Behind Parental Refusal of Vaccines

Because they're stupid.

I was curious about that report you linked to, as it didn’t ring true and had no methodology. So I checked the full report.

The data was mainly collected from healthcare workers, not parents. Data from parents is 47(!) survey responses, which were not to gen pop. So basically meaningless.

If you speak to healthcare workers guess what they focus on? Thats right, the healthcare system. Doctors and nurses will hear much more from people moaning about appointment availability and booking systems than from people about their vaccine beliefs.

Im actually quite shocked that they published this, but then social research is very poorly understood.

This isn’t an attack on you but in a world of misinformation, getting crap like this from an org that should be trusted is just annoying.

My point wasn't about vaccine uptake by ethnic minorities, so please don't hijack it for political point scoring.

Parents who don’t get their children vaccinated should be reported to Social Services. It’s neglect.

It’s not political point scoring. It’s genuinely interesting based on demographic uptake. You’ve chosen to take it that way.