I'm in my early 50s and am guessing many of the people I met as a newborn were unvaccinated. My dad told me I had measles at 6 months. In my late 20s, I was training to be a teacher and caught chicken pox from one of the kids in my teaching practice class, when I was about 10 or 11 weeks pregnant. I had a devastating miscarriage. So I have reason not to be anti vaccines. At that tie there was no research or not much on the effects of chicken pox on pregnant women. I know beause a Dr pulled me aside, and wanted to ask me about it, when the subject came up during a standard baby health clinic visit with my oldest son (who had been a non identical twin and survived the miscarriage of his twin). He said he was interested in researching this - not much had been done about it, then. Many people didn't even know chicken pox could be dangerous to pregnant women and even my 'anecdotal' info was interesting.
My older kids are vaccinated. I was studying Early Childhood for a Masters degree in the US when my first kids were a toddler and a newborn, and as the US had a slightly different schedule for MMR, second son didn't get his til slightly later than they normally do it, when we returned to England. He was a normal baby. We know because I was the only student on y course with a baby (He was 1 when we left), so we ran every single standardised test of cognitive and other kinds of development, on him. In other words, he was more heavily tested than pretty well any baby on the planet. He spoke 5 words.
Back in England, with my belief in 'herd immunity' etc, I took them for the MMR. Within hours, son 2 was a screaming wreck. He continued screaming - til he was 4. And lost all his language overnight. Quite ironic that I'd been studying Psycholinguisics at what was at that time the foremost university for the subject in the US and my son had been the guinea pig for every grad student's standardised testing data so we could categorically say he had been 'normal' developmentally before the MMR (late onset autism was by the way, so rare before the vaccine that most doctors never saw it in their lifetimes). Now it is the commonest form.
I was later told by someone who had seen statements from around 2000 families affected by MMR that my son's was the clearest cut trajectory they ever saw.
We all know the story of how the research was flawed and discredited. I have no opinion either way on it but suspect an etiology may one day be found.
None of my three younger sons are vaccinated but I'm not anti vaccinations as such, just that one. 15 year old wants the vaccinations they were recently doing at his school and I am taking him to the GP for them with no qualms.
Family member of mine is having a baby soon and I'd fully understand if she didn't want my germificated kids near it. That would be her choice. Just as it was my choice not to risk that again.
The batch of vaccine my son had was traced. Half a dozen other kids developed some form of autism after they went to that same surgery to have that same vaccination. This was later called a 'cluster'. Many of the kids damaged were in batch clusters - that info has almost never been released except by parents made aware at the time, no doubt). I know one of the clusters was a fairly high number.
So I have often thought it might have been something in the storage protocol, as only certain batches were affected. Interestingly, the doctor's practice we had our sons vaccinated at, the main GP there was struck off a couple of years after - not for this, because the government had stockpiled this stuff and had to use it - but something else. But that does point to her being less than competent.
I don't really want to get involved in a bunfight and TBH I have heard anything anyone could have to say over the last 20 years.
But I try not to miss a chance to get this info out there. As single vaccines, I'm certain the constituent parts of MMR pose no more threat than any other vaccine. But I will admit I didn't get my younger sons vaccinated with the single vaccines as I simply couldn't afford it.