Why are some parents/families anti vax?

[Sistersis]

Just read an article about the UK no longer being measles free. Just trying to understand what are the reasons that some people are against vaccination.

Not being cheeky here, geniuenly interested. Sorry if this has been done already.

September you do realise mumps can cause infertility? Your argument makes no sense whatsoever.

I presume it is what it says, but that is a trust thing. Mistakes happen.

Because there's a thing called quality control.

Totally unrelated to serial killer medical professionals. WTAF?

Bet you're glad you asked OP

I guess you want a nicer answer than they are gullible idiots who would rather potentially kill their child than them 'catch' autism?

Just so you fools know, you're born autistic. You can't catch it. It's insane that that has to be explained to adults.

Herd immunity is necessary for those who actually can't have the vaccine. By these dumbasses not getting it for their child because they think their last brain cell remaining is smarter than doctors, they are putting those children at risk. So they are happy for others to die too, not just their own children.

To those saying side effects can happen, side effects can happen from literally anything. Paracetamol could kill your child if they are allergic to it. So could certain foods. You going to starve them to avoid finding out? No? Didn't think so.

This topic makes me so angry. People like this shouldn't be allowed children to be honest. They are a danger to society. We will probably end up with an epidemic of diseases because of people like this. So selfish and stupid.

I believe that’s a possibility for boys (although rare) but I have two daughters.

That’s the problem isn’t it - complications from mumps are rare, but they happen, vaccine damage is rare but it happens. No easy answers.

Because they’ve read some stuff on the internet that tells them what they wanted to hear: that it’s all a conspiracy, it’s been hushed up by Big Pharma etc etc. They want to feel that they are more enlightened than others, that they’ve seen through the lies, or they’ve had a bad experience with the medical industry and want to ‘prove’ that they’re all liars and cheats. I say this from experience of a conversation with an anti-vaxxer. Honestly, it made me want to weep.

To touch on some of the comments above, it’s quite possible to be a proponent of alternative therapies - including homeopathy - and still fully support, endorse and use vaccination. Alternatives have their place, and I’ve had very good results from them over a long period of time, but anyone who tells you that they are the only way and that conventional medicine is dangerous/useless/only filling Big Pharma’s pockets in a world run by lizards that zip up at the back is a charlatan who should be disregarded.

It's really easy to get stuck in those wormholes of conspiracy theories and misinformation. You want the best for your kids, and then find all those books and videos, some even by alleged scientists and doctors, telling you vaccines are not necessary and are just poisoning your child - I can totally understand why one might believe them. Same with how GMOs will kill you or the magical pain relieving properties of amber.

September oh you only have daughters. Well that's okay then. Fuck the rest of society.

What an unbelievably selfish attitude.

Fear and complacency.

Fear because there are a very, very small number of people damaged by vaccines. Like any story when it's rare it's big news. So when you know someone, or your friend has a relative etc, it's massive and scary.

However, when vaccines came out (especially for measles etc) they were amazing because everyone knew someone who'd lost a child to measles so those stories of vaccine damaged paled in comparison. People who knew my great-grandmother knew a woman who had lost seven children to measles. That doesn't happen anymore and people are complacent because the only time they hear of M, M or R it's a small outbreak and symptoms are mild.

That is a lot of trust you are putting in a lot if people you don't know, many of whom are only in it for the money.

But why would anyone trust non trained non medical people who have clickbait websites and want to sell books scaremongering about vaccines?

There are indeed discussions about certain vaccines, and not all vaccines available have a high protection rate. I'm thinking cholera and a new malaria vaccine, as well as the BCG, but those are implemented in specific cases.

For the most part, WHO and governmental guidelines are to be trusted and are adjusted as necessary.

Because very few people have sufficient critical thinking skills to make good decisions about things like vaccines.

I’ve had this circular argument many times Bene and I won’t change my mind.

I am not anti vaccine. Kids have had their vaccinations.

If we were to travel abroad they would have further vaccinations. At the moment, we aren’t. In other words, I’m not giving them vaccinations they really do not need.

If other parents choose to then that’s fine. I don’t.

It baffles me too.

My brother had measles despite having been vaccinated and it was awful. My mother had the doctor check the notes in case he hadn’t been but he had
Anyway he was soo ill

FF a few years and my sister who also witnessed what measles can do still refused to vaccinate her child

It’s her right I suppose but still incomprehensible

My parents were anti-vaxxers as they (my dad in particular) did not agree w big pharma, only natural bollox. Shame for him though as he died young from something he could’ve been treated effectively for.
So naturally my DCs have been vaccinated with everything going on the nhs. It turned out that I wasn’t immune to Ruebella in my first pregnancy so as soon as I had recovered from the birth etc I had the jab.
I’ve had a few immunisations as an adult but I’m not fully covered - I think mumps is the only one I’ve either not been vaccinated against, nor had as a child.
I wouldn’t bother getting the flu one until I’m elligible on nhs and didn’t get CP one for DCs - they both caught it young and I’m definitely immune to it (was also tested as came into contact when pregnant).

Because they’re idiots. And because they have a selfish disregard for the lives of others - not vaccinating can mean someone else’s baby dies of a vaccine preventable disease.

September how would you feel if your daughter contracted mumps and passed it on to a boy in her school who, for genuine medical reasons, hadn't been vaccinated? Someone who is relying on herd immunity but has been put at risk by your selfishness.

No September. There is an easy answer, all these illnesses are potentially serious both for the person infected and those they infect. I come from the generation that did not have vaccination for Measles Mumps and German measles. I and my brother were hospitalised with measles, I caught Mumps when I was 21, hospitalised again but not before I had infected my boyfriend and another male friend with all the worries about fertility and I caught German measles when I was 19 and walked around shops and supermarkets and my university for several days whilst infectious but not realising. Signs went up in the university health centre warning pregnant women to watch for the signs. I would have beaten down the door of the doctors surgery to get the MMR vaccination for my daughters, unfortunately this was before the Chicken Pox vaccine and my 18 month old as a result of the viral load from her sister was so badly affected by chicken pox, spots in her throat and vagina, that she was hospitalised. It makes me livid to see the signs that have gone up in our local hospital as a result of three local secondary schools having a measles outbreak with hundreds affected, most not vaccinated. Totally irresponsible of those parents. The risk and consequences right there........

I know more scientists and doctors who are antivax than uneducated people.

Vaccines have risks. Vaccine damage is a thing and for some people this is a bigger risk than not vaccinating their children. If you aren’t convinced by that please ask to look at the info sheet that comes with the vaccines

Vaccines aren’t subject to the same testing criteria as other drugs and companies aren’t accountable if there are any issues

All that said mine are vaccinated, I think it’s a really personal decision and I fully support parents rights to chose what they feel is safest and best for their children

“That the bottle is filled with what the pharmaceutical company say it is filled with”

You could use that argument for any medicine you are given ever. Any drug we give you in hospital, any bag of fluid. It’s hardly exclusive to vaccines.

What if there really is a conspiracy?
But not the big pharma one.
Population control. Make enough people refuse vaccinations, less people in the world...
Think about that...🤔

I am joking of course. Or maybe I am not...

The likelihood of him having such a severe form of mumps as to render him infertile is pretty far fetched bene.

But the answer is - and my answer will be the same - everyone has to do what is best for their child. I actually paid for a private vaccination for my children because that was in their interests. (It was a very difficult decision.)

In the majority of cases mumps is a mild disease. I wouldn’t send my child to school unwell in any case.

I also think a small part of the problem is the way some people jump on someone for expressing any doubt.

My ex is a rabid anti vaxxer. I didn’t know this until I was pregnant (and we’d been together years!). He was adamant he wasn’t allowing our girls to have vaccines. I mentioned it when out with my friends (all with babies/kids). Partly because I could feel my relationship crumbling and I needed support from my friends. Also partly because there were some very educated people and I felt like they would be able to point me in the direction of proper info that I could use to back me up.

I got absolutely jumped on. One woman even said I should have social services involvement for even giving anti vax stands a moments thought.

When people are getting pressure from family then it’s much better to arm them with irrefutable facts than just call them stupid and shake the head.

My girls almost had single vaccines because I was just attacked from all sides. The pressure was hideous. One person talked to me kindly about it. Armed me with good and unbiased sources (it’s not easy to find on the internet as there is so much shite) about the actual number of people damaged by vaccines and that’s what was needed to settle my mind that the people putting the pressure were wrong.

“I know more scientists and doctors who are antivax than uneducated people”

What sort of scientists and doctors of what?

I wonder if there is a link between the outbreak and the three schools affected all being church schools 🤔 Fulham Boys’ School is led by a full on misogynist homophobic creationist Conservative Evangelical www.google.co.uk/amp/s/inews.co.uk/news/measles-oubreak-west-london-illness-cases-recorded-2019/amp/

There is a lot of misinformation out there and downplaying of the significant risks, particularly those posed by measles. Not everybody is able to understand maths well enough to comprehend the far smaller risk from vaccines than from the illnesses themselves, which is a shame. Meanwhile these people put babies under 1 and immune compromised individuals at risk by letting the diseases spread and probably don't even know who they've killed (72 measles deaths across Europe in 2018, well done anti-vaxxers!!), quite apart from other lifelong effects caused to many more. Measles was within reach of actually being wiped out, if nobody had listened to that crook Andrew Wakefield then we could have seen global efforts towards it as we did with smallpox and polio.