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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Why would someone say this about vaccines? Is it odd?

586 replies

PuzzlingPanda · 09/03/2016 19:59

Was in a health food shop today and mentioned an ongoing issue I'm having with one of my do.

The man mentioned he thought the biggest thing going wrong with our children was all the vaccines they receive. He said they full of nasties, designed to make people ill.

It could be put down to a man having a pointless rant but why would he say this? Is there any sort of truth in it?

Not the first time I've heard negative things about vaccines.

Now I'm worried about it.

OP posts:
pointythings · 09/03/2016 20:01

There are a lot of people who really believe this. They are known as anti-vaxxers. Science does not apply to them. You are probably more likely to run across one of them in a health food shop than in a supermarket.

Do not believe them. They are talking crap.

GruntledOne · 09/03/2016 20:02

Some people get obsessive about vaccines and there's a whole anti-vax movement full of people with not enough to do that like to hint darkly about dreadful conspiracy theories involving them without ever producing a jot of evidence. Ignore him.

Vintage45 · 09/03/2016 20:02

I would imagine "health food" shops might attract that kind of ridiculous staff.

Oysterbabe · 09/03/2016 20:03

He's a thick twat.

KatharinaRosalie · 09/03/2016 20:04

He probably also believes that lizard people are controlling us all through chemtrail spray.

KingJoffreyLikesJaffaCakes · 09/03/2016 20:05

A health food work has to say that.

His income depends on you believing that sesame seeds and kale are the answer to all of life's issues.

Andro · 09/03/2016 20:06

'Designed to make people ill' is just paranoid rubbish.
'Full of nasties' used to have a grain truth in that there were some less than ideal chemicals used in the formulations, this is no longer the case as far as I know.
He probably said it because he believes it, that doesn't mean he's correct or reasonable.

Now, vaccines are very safe for the overwhelming majority...but if you/your child in in the tiny minority good luck getting a HCP to acknowledge it (bitter experience)

PurpleDaisies · 09/03/2016 20:07

So some random bloke you've never met before, who presumably has no medical qualifications or scientific knowledge has made you question the massive amount of positive evidence showing vaccines save millions of lives? Are you seriously worried by what he said?

ZedWoman · 09/03/2016 20:07

Because people love a good conspiracy theory.

He probably things Elvis was abducted by aliens as well.

passmethewineplease · 09/03/2016 20:07

Because he's stupid.

Some people have an overactive imagination and believe everything and everyone is against them. Hmm

StitchesInTime · 09/03/2016 20:10

Vaccines have been around for ages. The vast majority of adults in this country will have been given plenty of vaccines as children. The vast majority of these adults will have grown into adulthood with only minor problems.

If vaccines were really designed to make us ill, don't you think you'd have noticed huge numbers of sickly children and adults around by now?

It's also worth remembering that vaccines protect against diseases that can make people very ill, and that can cause permanent disability or death if you get unlucky.

Sallyhasleftthebuilding · 09/03/2016 20:10

DD friend has never had any vaccines - they travel the world on fab holidays - they rely on the masses to have the vaccines to protect their children.

Some illness cause horrendous deformities - blindness deafness etc and not worth the risk

TimeToMuskUp · 09/03/2016 20:10

I worried when DS1 was born and we started looking at vaccines. I had friends who were (and remain) super anti-vaccines and friends who were fine with the whole shebang. Opinions on it vary enormously and people you previously hadn't thought twice about suddenly attack you with a huge list of reasons as to why their opinion is the only valid one.

My personal belief is that vaccines are proven to have saved hundreds of thousands more lives than they ruin, and that they are the right choice for my DCs. I wouldn't worry too much over what a health food worker believes, because he doesn't know you or anything about your DCs, their health or your lifestyle in general. DCs get ill sometimes, it's a fact of life. They'd get far more ill, far more often were it not for vaccines.

sugar21 · 09/03/2016 20:11

Bollox absolute cocking bollox.
That sort of rubbish makes me so so cross
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/2554825-This-week-Mn-has-been-making-me-cry

RockUnit · 09/03/2016 20:15

Vaccination sceptics always seems to avoid talking about the infectious diseases which vaccinations prevent Hmm

There are vaccine scares from time to time but these tend to get disproven. For example there was a study in 1998 suggesting the MMR immunisation could cause autism, but it was later discredited, and further research has shown there's no such link.

The Vaccine Knowledge project

"In the case of all the vaccines used in the current UK routine schedule, refusing vaccination leads to a far higher risk of harm than vaccinating does."

georgetteheyersbonnet · 09/03/2016 20:16

Every doctor I know has their children vaccinated against everything they can get hold of, NHS and private. I would be surprised if health food shop man's grasp of medicine and immunology is on a par with an NHS consultant's.

specialsubject · 09/03/2016 20:17

you have to be extremely ignorant and incapable of logical reasoning to say what he said.

There's no smallpox. How did that happen?

yes, there is a risk with vaccines. Usually it is considerably less than the risk of the disease. Nothing is 100% safe and we all die.

judging relative risk is a useful skill. This fool clearly could not.

ghostyslovesheep · 09/03/2016 20:18

he's a twat

BarkGruffalo · 09/03/2016 20:19

Anti vaxxers are Darwin in action.

SkyWasMadeOfAmethyst · 09/03/2016 20:22

Anti-vaxxers are dangerous and deluded. These people let their toddler die because they believe health food and supplements could cure his menegitis. They own a company that claims their supplements cure bipolar disorder Hmm

jezebel.com/anti-vaxx-couple-allegedly-allowed-toddler-to-die-of-me-1763573917

Liara · 09/03/2016 20:25

Every doctor I know has their children vaccinated against everything they can get hold of, NHS and private. I would be surprised if health food shop man's grasp of medicine and immunology is on a par with an NHS consultant's.

How many doctors do you actually know?

I know several who will privately admit that the current vaccination regime has tilted far too far in the wrong direction, risk-benefit wise, but they say they would never say it in public as their career would be destroyed.

The truth is that yes, there are loads of nasties in vaccines (and in every other medicine we use) and we have no idea what effect they could have in the long run as quite simply, we have not done enough long range studies, but that we as a society have decided that probably on balance the benefit of reducing he burden from certain diseases is worth the unknown risk from those nasties.

The lobbying from vaccine companies probably does have something to do with which diseases we decide that is the case for, and as such it varies from country to country.

tilder · 09/03/2016 20:25

Did he wear a turquoise tracksuit? and tin hat

sugar21 · 09/03/2016 20:26

sky can I still your link to put on my thread please?

sugar21 · 09/03/2016 20:27

I mean steal