selfish to refuse the mmr?

[racheael76]

many children and young adults are not being vaccinated against mmr.i have a young child and worry for the future if everyone had the mmr it would make three diseases history/extint.with people not protecting their loved ones these diseases are making a comeback.people with cancer ,low immune systems due to serious health problems eg transplant patients, and pregnant ladies and newborn babies are at risk.in the future it could be my daughter in law who is pregnant (lets say her mum didnt give her the mmr injection) she caught rubella known as german measles it could cause our grandchild to be stillborn or brain damage or heart defects/loss of hearing/bith defects.so the mmr does effect other people not just the person who is not vaccinated.

if my mum didnt give me the jab when i was younger i would be worried if i was pregnant with the outbreak.i would think she was selfish,thoughtless.if my baby had a problem i would think my mum could have prevented this by giving me the mmr = i wonder how my mum would feel.
on the other side some dont want to risk autism or mercury ,poison injected into their child they love.
what are your views?
is it selfish not to give mmr?

[Badvoc]

There are about 240 strains of flu.
The flu jab is a vaccine that has the 4 most prevalent strains - according to the WHO - each year.
That's why even though I had the flu jab I still got flu last month.
Just not the strain I had been vaccinated against.
Also, the people who die from flu are without exception either the very young, very old, those with respitory issues or immuno compromised.

[CoteDAzur]

" "Natural" immunity from catching the actual illness is no better than immunity conferred by immunisation."

I wouldn't say so, considering that:

(1) You will probably, but not necessarily, be immune to a disease after vaccination (i.e. vaccinated kids sometimes get the disease) whereas you will be immune after having the disease.

and

(2) Vaccine immunity wanes after some years and can possibly leave you vulnerable as an adult, whereas natural immunity following disease is forever.

Therefore, natural immunity from catching the disease itself is far better to vaccine immunity. The question is whether or not you want to risk having the disease to have this superior immunity.

In the case of rubella, the disease itself is very benign, so I would actually want DC to have it and be immune for life. Vaccinating babies for a disease they only really need to be immune to in childbearing years does not seem to be in their best interests.

[Badvoc]

I nearly died of whooping cough as a toddler.
I got it again when I was 33.
Natural immunity my arse.

[Badvoc]

...and you can get C pox more than once too.

[expatinscotland]

My mother got whooping cough twice. Once in childhood, and once in her 60s. Her doctors assumed she had lifelong natural immunity and tested her for everything under the sun first.

[Matsikula]

I suspect a lot of people simply do forget about the vaccine - in my area you don't get a reminder letter, and the advice on when to get the top up is conflicting. This is an area where they have historically had a low take-up. Plus my younger child is due their first dose of MMR right now but it is so hard to get an appointment with the nurse that I have considered having it done privately. I think they ought to be capitalising on what is going on in Wales and running drop-ins to get the rate up where it needs to be. I am a bit surprised the Government isn't putting more pressure on to achieve this.

[CoteDAzur]

Badvoc - Not sure about your arse, but lifelong immunity doesn't necessarily form if you have an illness too young.

I had measles twice. Once when I was a baby, and then when I was 8.

It doesn't mean that natural immunity is as fickle a thing as vaccine immunity.

[CoteDAzur]

I see that nobody had anything to say about rubella vaccination not being in the best interests of toddlers. It's good to see that this is now accepted and not contested on MN

[Badvoc]

(I got cp on my arse actually)

[CoteDAzur]

If you didn't have it anywhere else, have you considered the possibility that it may have been heat rash?

[Badvoc]

It was very where sadly. Even in my eyebrows!

[Runningblue]

Yes