UK lost measles free status

[Stressedout10]

So due to all the anti Vaxers the WHO have stripped us of our measles free status.
What next ?

I'm old enough myself not to have been fully immunised. 2 people I know have had childhood measles and both have lost hearing because of it. Someone else I knew had a daughter who contracted measles and ended up with measles encephalopathy, with crippling pain and seizures and, eventually, death at a ridiculously young age.

My dd is that era, and it wasn’t particularly difficult or expensive to get single vaccines. I was a single parent who had just gone back after maternity and although hardly wealthy it wasn’t the cost or difficulty that put me, or other parents I knew off. Simply the fact that by dragging it out you left them exposed for longer. Plus the common insignificant side effects like a temp and bruising from the 4 month jabs etc weren’t something any of us particularly wanted to inflict on our babies just because a discredited piece of pseudo science was doing the rounds online.

i was seriously ill and had febrile convulsions as a baby following the mmr but fully recovered. My mum lost her sight due to having measles as a child. I know the risks of both the vaccinations (which are minimal) and the diseases but still do not understand the mentality of anti vaxers.

I don’t think people really allow for the fact that getting or not getting measles is a risk and one that albeit is increasing, is still not highly likely. Vaccinating is a choice you make for your baby knowing there is also a risk. But the difference is you are choosing to expose them to that risk. No one chooses to expose their child to measles or the like (well maybe rubella to acquire lifelong immunity or chickenpox to get it over with). So IF your child became ill via a disease you’d not blame yourself rather you’d know it was bad luck to be there at that time and place they were exposed. It wasn’t knowingly done. However if your child has a reaction to the vaccinations- you’ve chosen to expose them to that risk.

Also isn’t it interesting that the person whose children recently had measles was advised to treat it like chickenpox in terms of rest and care? Just as my mums old readers digest medical care in the home books says “measles is a normal childhood illness”. In the USA they see chickenpox as this highly alarming deadly disease whereas we see it as a pretty unpleasant but run of the mill childhood illness- just as many saw measles... I wonder how our children will view chickenpox or maybe the common cold should a vaccine against that be developed next...

My kids are vaccinated. I have also read Wakefield's book. Whilst I will accept he comes across as mad as a box of frogs now I do think he was scapegoated to a degree - he includes what he actually said in his paper versus how it was reported and there are substantial differences. I do think there was something bigger at play there on both sides. There were also known "faulty" MMR batches in use prior to Wakefield that some trusts recalled and some didn't. The earlier poster who calls for more honesty is absolutely correct. People can joke about "big pharma" but anyone who doesn't look at the massive amounts of money involved here is v naive.

Just wait until polio and diphtheria return. We've seen nothing yet.

Just as my mums old readers digest medical care in the home books says “measles is a normal childhood illness”

Yes, it was. A very unpleasant and often dangerous illness. But 'normal'.

Thank science it's not normal any more.

It's just occurred to me that Americans may have a bit of a different take on childhood diseases because of their lack of an nhs. Kids are looked after, but not sure what happens to those unlucky people whose health is impaired longterm as the result of a childhood illness?

Oh my fucking life.
I’ve just read through this thread and am absolutely steaming.
To the pp who compared MMR to Thalidomide, shame on you.
Thalidomide was an horrific time in medical history. Thousands of children were affected BUT once the devastating results were identified the drug was stopped being used for morning sickness.
Andrew Wankfield presented false research, he was struck off and anyone with at least two brain cells should be able to see that they were bamboozled.
This is not a subject for debate.
Antivaxers are deluded at best. At worst?
Sick joke I’ve just heard, why was the antivaxers 5yo crying?
Mid life crisis.
Not a fucking joke

Salmonpinkcords

There is a current outbreak at my baby’s nursery. I am now waiting to see if she has been infected. I’m beyond worried but am powerless. She is too young for vaccine.
I think vaccinations should be mandatory for attendance at nursery or state school. Allow the choice but make it a hard choice not to vaccinate. I think protecting those can’t get the vaccine is crucial in society (due to health, age, etc).

You do realise that your own unvaccinated child would then not be allowed in the nursery either, right? What makes your child any less of a measles spreader than anyone else's unvaccinated child?

You do realise that your own unvaccinated child would then not be allowed in the nursery either, right?

Don't be daft, those too young to be vaccinated are in the group who can't be vaccinated and so depend on those that can. In this case, the bulk of the children who are old enough, with a few medical exceptions.

If the government really cared about this status then they would not have purposely made measles single jabs first very expensive then completely unattainable.

There are lots of things they could have done in the last 10 years but as with lots of things, they simply haven't bothered.

I don’t think we should attack/fine the parents who are genuinely concerned about their children.
I think we should hunt down the mad fuckers who are spreading this madness on social media etc and target them

@Isadora2007

In the USA they see chickenpox as this highly alarming deadly disease whereas we see it as a pretty unpleasant but run of the mill childhood illness- just as many saw measles... I wonder how our children will view chickenpox or maybe the common cold should a vaccine against that be developed next...

Assuming you are not an American, are you basing your conclusion that we see VZV as "highly alarming" and "deadly" simply because we routinely vaccinate for it? It can, in fact, lead to increased morbidity and mortality, although only quite rarely.

We routinely vaccinate for it for the simple reason that vaccinating for it is safer for the patient than having the disease.

www.cdc.gov/features/preventchickenpox/index.html

It's also very uncomfortable for the patient, a situation we try to avoid if possible. If the NHS can't be arsed to do so take it up with them.

Oh, and if there were a vaccine for the common cold I'd get it in a heartbeat, as would millions of others.

ErrolTheDragon

Don't be daft, those too young to be vaccinated are in the group who can't be vaccinated and so depend on those that can. In this case, the bulk of the children who are old enough, with a few medical exceptions.

But how is a room full of unvaccinated babies/toddlers and a few vaccinated toddlers any safer re measles than (for example) a room full of unvaccinated babies, a few vaccinated toddlers and one unvaccinated toddler? The unvaccinated toddler is no more likely to be infected with measles than any of the "too young to be vaccinated" babies, and in some cases (such as pp whose 1 and 3 year olds had measles despite prior MMR vax) it's the vaccinated who are spreading it.

Vaccines need to be made compulsory.

Most anti vaxxers home educate so not letting them go to school will achieve nothing.

*BiffNChips
*
Younger babies will have some maternal antibody protection, but they can't be vacc'd till its declined.

So the scenario you depict is quite inaccurate.

www.nhs.uk/conditions/vaccinations/mmr-vaccine/

A child (particularly a baby) doesn’t have the capacity to make their own decisions about healthcare, education, etc. But one day they will. In the meantime, that decision-making power belongs to their parents.

No it doesn't, the state demands your child has an education, you can choose state, private or home ed, but you cannot leave your child uneducated.

If your child is ill and you don't seek medical treatment you could have your child taken into care.

I like the idea of needing vaccinations for school but I can also see the other side that it is punishing the child for their parents' opinion.

I think a huge fine, the cost of ICU for three weeks multiplied by the number of vaccines missed so that the cost to the NHS of an outbreak would be at least partially covered.

We had an outbreak of measles locally. I asked my nursery school what the levels of vaccination are, they don't actually know, which really shocked me. It is one thing maki ng vaccination compulsory (which I would support) but at a bare minimum the school should know who is and isn't vaccinated and whether there is likely to be here immunity.

I just dont understand how we now all have to take such care over allergens in lunch boxes to protect the health of children with allergies (which I gladly do) but when it comes easily preventable potentially deadly communicable diseases it is every man for themselves. Makes no sense

My DB and SIL haven’t allowed our toddler DN to have any vaccinations, let alone his MMR.
They do not allow him to socialise (no playgroups or social activities) and are intending to homeschool him.
Poor child.

Pretty sure it's down to more than just the anti vaxers. The influx of unvaccinated 'visitor's has introduced and re-introduced various viruses etc. It really sucks.

It always amazes me how hypocritical people are about vaccination on here. So I have my child vaccinated to benefit society and s/he suffers nasty life-changing side-effects. Will society help me then? Not a chance

Yes, it will. Both the UK and US governments offer no fault compensation for those injured as a result of vaccines

Except they don't always, see my previous post about a family of a man who was damaged as a baby and his parents did not get a pay-out. They fought through the courts for years, despite having the opinion of many different doctors that the vaccine had damaged their child, the tribunal judges just kept turning down their claim. They went to their MP, the case was debated in the House of Commons, but still nothing. It is when the government acts in such a disgusting way that makes some people lose faith in the vaccine programme.

AquaFaba that’s so sad, how isolating for the poor child x

Have not read whole thread but are there really enough anti vaxers around to actually cause this much damage!

I assumed the rise was due to increase in children from countries where they don't vaccinate?
I always imagined anti vaxers to be very small group of people

If your child is ill and you don't seek medical treatment you could have your child taken into care.

Of course, because you have not met the standard of care for that considered ‘good enough’. A child without measles or any other illness isn’t ill. If your child caught measles, needed medical attention and you refused to seek it, that isn’t the same as choosing not to use preventative medicines.

Greeborising

But I was not debating Wakefield.