Anti Vaxx threads shouldn't be allowed

[turnthebiglightoff]

AIBU to suggest that anti vaxxer threads should be reported and removed? This site is so important to many members, impressionable women will inevitably take someone's word as gospel if they already have concerns themselves. I suggest the deletion message signposts to speak to your local NHS teams / GP / visit the NHS website etc. I don't think MN allows MLM promotion; arguably this is of greater importance as it could affect so many (children's) health.

Does anyone disagree? I'd be really interested to hear why. *I really don't mean this as a TAAT as I believe this is a wider issue.

2 of my nct group are not vaccinating their kids following links they found on a mumsnet thread.

I believe in free speech but the internet has changed things and it is terrifying.

Polarising doesn’t work eg saying all of us who don’t vax fully are stupid

Much better to have a reasoned discussion

In the past I have tried to understand where antivaxxers are coming from just in case I am perhaps missing something, but I've never seen anything that makes me understand it. I remember somebody at toddler group saying once that she wouldn't be vaccinating because of mercury in the vaccine. There's more mercury in a tuna sandwich ffs

@Beachcomber
I'm so sorry for your experience.

Some children are injured- very sad but true. People have the right to discuss the topic.

Frida, if they hadn’t found them on mn then they might have found them elsewhere

The first time I was confronted with a total no vax stance was at a North London baby group

People promoting links between mmr and vaccines are removed I believe

Vaccine damage is not a myth its just not as widespread as we are led to believe

My children are vaccinated no I do not believe this caused the autism because they had it when they were born

That's scary Frida
Have people lost the ability to think critically, to gather information from a range of sources?

Autism not vaccines 🙄

Also, I think it is really divisive to refer to people as "anti vaxxers".

I'm not anti vaccination let alone being an "anti vaxxer".
I'm the mother of a child who reacted badly to vaccination and I sometimes speak about it.

I'm not surprised by the language despite finding it offensive and hurtful and othering. Parents like me and children like mine have to be dismissed as stupid, deluded anti vaxxxxxers because we are an inconvenience which spoils the agreable idea of vaccination as being a free lunch / no-brainer.

Ffs, this knee-jerk reflex to vanish away inconvenient opinions seems to be contagious, that's for sure.

Robust debate is the cure for stupidity.

I think it would be better to encourage people not to pile on to anti vaxxers

When my elder girls were born I was bullied into single vaccines by my ex (his entire family are anti-vax because of one child who sustained vaccine damage and two because of the thalidomide scandal). Anytime I tried to get advice against his position I was told "Don't be stupid" or "Are you thick?" or "No kids get hurt by vaccines"

That was absolutely no help to me whatsoever. The internet is awash with contradictory information and I was totally isolated

Thanks to the very kind and knowledgable GP who actually listened to my worries, answered my questions with actual facts and provable statistics, and who helped me work through the position I was in I took them for the MMR, albeit late.

The people who just yelled at me helped no-one.

Agree Beachcomber, I have a child who has had reactions to vaccines in the past and I have spaced out / refused some vaccines since

@Sumsuch

Thank you.

She's doing OK now. Thankfully. Not totally recovered but well. She was very ill for a long time as her immune system was derailed for years. It took over all our lives.

A lot of what helped us to repair the damage is thanks to sharing experiences with other parents like us. Which is the main reason why I think free discussion is vital.

It was odd - it was time for all of our babies to have the first round of injections and one sent a link to a mumsnet thread in our WhatsApp group. And the other then decided she too wouldn’t vaccinate.

The thread was totally typical - lots of sensible people saying you should vaccinate but that wasn’t what either of them gathered from the thread.

The first person said she opened the thread by chance because she was looking at active topics and it was there and it completely changed her view.

I don’t think this is a mumsnet problem. It is an internet problem. It is why we have trump and brexit! People fix on an idea and then find an echo chamber of people that agree with them and they become obsessed and forcefully vocal and facts/experts get lost.

Pre internet you might find someone who agreed with you by chance .... maybe you would chat to them occasionally. You wouldn’t have the power to start a viral Facebook group!

@Onceuponatimethen

I hope things are OK for you and your child now.

We have been very cautious with our 2nd child. Our GP is very understanding as he witnessed what happened to DD1.

I think anti-vaxx threads do very little to discourage people to vaccinate because almost all the responses are people saying how stupid it is to not vaccinate.

Oh. Is this a thread about a thread?

In which case I shan't bother posting about my real life experiences as it actually matters to me rather a lot and chances are this thread will be deleted so is waste of energy and caring.

I don't think so beachcomber, unless I've missed something?

FourTeaFallOut

I think this might be about the "refusing gardasil experiences" thread. I didn't post on it but I read some of it.

Ah, I didn't see it, I thought it was a straight thread, sorry.

Debate should be allowed. It also gives us the chance to talk some sense into those who don’t vaccine!

I wish the pro vaxxers wouldn't be so rude about those who choose not to vaccinate for valid medical reasons and stop ignoring the blindingly obvious fact that some children ARE damaged by vaccines. One of my daughters was very ill after her second MMR and I was told by my GP that there was no way she should have the third part of the vaccine. A neighbour's relative tragically became physically and mentally handicapped after the whooping cough vaccine. The thought of banning discussion about parents' genuine concerns about vaccination is ridiculous.

I think people take from a thread or a source what they want to take from it.

I think they just look for a little push in the direction they want to go. So if there were no 'anti-vaxxers' on here they'd look for something else somewhere else on t'interweb.

No. Don't stop people talking about it.