Aibu to think MN should delete anti-vax threads?

[FigandVanilla]

The anti-vax movement is becoming a public health issue, and children’s lives are being endangered as a result. This obviously doesn’t only affect the children of anti-vaxxers, but also children who rely on herd immunity to protect them.

There is no scientific basis of any kind to support the anti-vax movement. It is an area where the scientific and medical community are in total agreement - vaccines save lives.

But there are not infrequent threads on Mumsnet where anti-vax sentiment spreads. And it’s always heartening to see the overwhelming push back against this from MNers. But I fear that there will inevitably still be parents who are swayed by these posts.

I am all for debate, but this isn’t a debatable issue. It’s an issue where one side is selling lies and misinformation. Facts are facts, and the truth is anti-vax threads exist because of a denial of the facts.

Should these threads be allowed? Or does MN have some kind of moral duty to children that means they ought to refuse to be a platform for a movement which is based on lies and which is actively harmful to children?

Not for the covid vaccination but for another illness which is creeping up in numbers and will only get worse with the increasing anti vaxer population.

Measles vaccine really needs to be made mandatory, just as it has been in France, makes me sad this country won’t do what is necessary to stop the anti vaxer spread of false information!

www.change.org/p/matt-hancock-make-the-mmr-vaccine-mandatory?recruiter=155577565&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=share_petition&recruited_by_id=04b59309-b2c0-4e9c-9239-f4512717676a

Sigh. Ok yeh that’s a GREAT IDEA! How about we’re not even allowed to know what’s in vaccines as well? Heavy metals, meh! Cell lines from aborted fetal tissues, oh well needs must! Dog kidney cells? Yep, health comes right out of that needle. Why don’t you read a vaccine insert, it’s clear you haven’t, and then reassess. You obviously exist in some kind of bizarre echo chamber because not all Drs are in agreement on this issue. In fact I could probably point you to about ten right now that would call vaccines out for what they really are. But what you find with people who think they’re highly intelligent and know better than the rest of us is they tend to not want to listen to that stuff cos they know it all already.

😂😂😂😂

The thing that I love most about your post is you clearly don’t see the irony in your last sentence. 😂😂

I would love to go to town on this answer. But there is no arguing with anti vaxers, you all believe you are the only people to have ever read a leaflet, the only people to have researched it.

I never said I was highly intelligent, but the irony is you clearly think that researching a little on Google makes you more intelligent than researchers, microbiologists and biochemists. I don’t have the time to argue with anyone who has such delusions of grandeur.

Just out of curiosity, is one of those doctors you refer to the same one who came out recently to say that the leaders of each country would be put up for war crimes because of the dangers based in the covid vaccine. 😂😂😂😂

I believe he was The Sun’s in house doctor, he’s a favourite amongst conspiracy theorists 😂😂😂

But...”my body, my choice”. What happened to that?

No, MN should not delete anti-vax threads unless there is clearly no truth in the post (eg claiming that the covid vaccine contains nanochips or similar nonsense).

People are allowed their views. Whether or not people vaccinate/get vaccinated is down to them. Get vaccinated yourself and forget about other people.

That’s absolutely fine and I’m all for that. Have a look at how France have put it into practice.
There are no fines, those who choose not to have their children vaccinated will not be able to send those children to school, so they must home school or find another means of tutoring. They are also looking into full disclosure for any public areas for children, to give the owners of a soft play / swimming pool / play centre the legal right to refuse admittance to anyone who puts the rest of their customers or staff at risk.

It is everyone’s choice to have the vaccine or not but it is up to the government to put in place safety measures for the rest of the population and the UK need to follow suit, no matter how unpopular they will become amongst the anti vaxer population. The rest of the population and most certainly those with immunocompromised children will be thanking them for taking safety measures to protect our children.

This thread is over 2 years old!!

And?
It’s as valid a point today as it was 2 years ago.

I think that MN should delete posts that are clearly misinformation about vaccines but leave the threads up so that genuine information can be posted. As Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis wisely observed, sunlight is the best disinfectant.

I mean I don’t seem shy wholly ‘anti vaxx’ threads. I do see some where people have made an informed choice about their own or their children’s health. I don’t know why we would want to censor free speech on here though? Surely there are lots of views people hold which others may feel compromise health/ well-being

@Belle82

Just out of curiosity, is one of those doctors you refer to the same one who came out recently to say that the leaders of each country would be put up for war crimes because of the dangers based in the covid vaccine. 😂😂😂😂

I believe he was The Sun’s in house doctor, he’s a favourite amongst conspiracy theorists 😂😂😂

No, Drs that have spent more time researching vaccines, many years and years, than the whole hour they get on the subject at medical school. Hope that helps.

@Belle82

😂😂😂😂

The thing that I love most about your post is you clearly don’t see the irony in your last sentence. 😂😂

I would love to go to town on this answer. But there is no arguing with anti vaxers, you all believe you are the only people to have ever read a leaflet, the only people to have researched it.

I never said I was highly intelligent, but the irony is you clearly think that researching a little on Google makes you more intelligent than researchers, microbiologists and biochemists. I don’t have the time to argue with anyone who has such delusions of grandeur.

Google? Ok love. As in the Google heavily funded by Bill Gates? Yeh cos that's a reliable source for information. There's just no helping stupid. But sure injecting perfectly healthy babies with known neurotoxins is a great idea! What could possibly go wrong? I'm sorry but you haven't researched vaccines or you'd never be an advocate for them. But go on pretending you have and acting better than those of us that have the intuition and common sense alone to know vaccines are nothing but poison.

Oh and scientists tend to agree with those who are funding them. Sorry you don't know how corrupt Big Pharma and medicine are. Maybe you'll get it one day. Hopefully it doesn't take your ignorance resulting in a child being vaccine injured first.

@FluWorldOrder

Oh and scientists tend to agree with those who are funding them. Sorry you don't know how corrupt Big Pharma and medicine are. Maybe you'll get it one day. Hopefully it doesn't take your ignorance resulting in a child being vaccine injured first.

You're talking out of your arse. You know you are. You've watched one too many YouTube conspiracy videos and now you have melty-brain. I've seen the damage done to people who haven't been vaccinated, now that's a real horror show.

@JassyRadlett

I am not anti vaccination by any stretch of the imagination, but I do think that it’s possible to overload a child’s immmune system with the number of vaccines we give now and the schedule which they are given in.

I see this increasingly frequently - I’m really interested in what it’s based on.

It's based on nothing. Infants and children are continuously exposed to environmental antigens, fewer now than at any point in our evolution. There is no evidence whatsoever that vaccines can "overwhelm" the immune system.

Addressing Parents’ Concerns: Do Multiple Vaccines Overwhelm or Weaken the Infant’s Immune System?

Abstract

Recent surveys found that an increasing number of parents are concerned that infants receive too many vaccines. Implicit in this concern is that the infant’s immune system is inadequately developed to handle vaccines safely or that multiple vaccines may overwhelm the immune system. In this review, we will examine the following: 1) the ontogeny of the active immune response and the ability of neonates and young infants to respond to vaccines; 2) the theoretic capacity of an infant’s immune system; 3) data that demonstrate that mild or moderate illness does not interfere with an infant’s ability to generate protective immune responses to vaccines; 4) how infants respond to vaccines given in combination compared with the same vaccines given separately; 5) data showing that vaccinated children are not more likely to develop infections with other pathogens than unvaccinated children; and 6) the fact that infants actually encounter fewer antigens in vaccines today than they did 40 or 100 years ago.

One hundred years ago, children received 1 vaccine (the smallpox vaccine). Forty years ago, children received 5 vaccines routinely (diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio, and smallpox vaccines) and as many as 8 shots by 2 years of age. Today, children receive 11 vaccines routinely and as many as 20 shots by 2 years of age (Table 1). The increased number of vaccines given to children and the increased percentage of children receiving vaccines have resulted in a dramatic decrease in the number of vaccine-preventable diseases. Most young parents today have never seen many of the diseases that vaccines prevent.

Of course not.

I'm very pro vaccinations and disagree strongly with ant vaxxers. However i disagree on two counts....1) its a free country with freedom of speech and 2) how are you supposed to engage with and educate such people if they are not allowed their say?

Better to hear their views and correct any wrong information than not allow them a voice, surely? No brainer imho.

@KoraBora

All you do then is force people who have doubts into the antivax echo chambers. Far better to debate here and challenge with actual facts and evidence.

Agree. It also encourages a mindset of anti-vaxxers then saying "they're all in collusion to shut us down because they're scared of the truth coming out" etc (I've seen this a lot when platforms ban it). I think that encourages people on the fringes of those circles to feel persecuted and actually pushes them further into these alternative (often harmful) beliefs.