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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

What impact will the current health issue have on vaccine hesitant/refusing parents?

169 replies

HowFurloughCanYouGo · 29/04/2020 09:58

You would hope that those who are vaccine hesitant or refuse vaccinations for their children will now understand what happens when a diseases is out of control and in desperate need for a preventative vaccination.

Do you think after this is over, it will improve vaccination uptake?

Or do you think those who refuse the MMR etc will also refuse the idea of covid19 vaccination and carry on as usual?

I'm currently writing a dissertation on vaccine uptake (or lack-thereof) so this really interests me. I really look forward to the literature that comes out over the next few years to show how things have (or have not!) changed.

OP posts:

Brogley · 30/04/2020 20:13

What about the people who had the SARS one and were compensated after for the terrible side effects it had on them?

Which SARS vaccine? There is no commercially available SARS vaccine.

Original poster

HowFurloughCanYouGo · 30/04/2020 20:36

Those who are saying that they are fully vaccinated but won't be rushing the get the covid-19 vaccination are really really missing the point of the thread.

I wasn't asking whether anyone would get the covid vaccination. Either those who choose to vaccinate their children or not.

I was asking whether, given that a deadly disease is rolling out in front of our eyes, it might change the minds of those who choose not to vaccinate their child at all.
Especially given the measles free status that we have recently lost.

The thread has gone off on a tangent as well questioned my research skills because I'm looking for articles on an academic database and not Facebook

But I think the general consensus is, that people think that those who choose not to vaccinate their children won't change their minds because they are thick.

As an aside, someone mentioned that their GP told them the uptake of current vaccinations has dwindled a bit.
That I can kinda understand. My sons MMR was late because it can sometimes cause a temperature.
His brothers were very very unwell recently (ambulance, suspected meningitis) and I cancelled the MMR because I thought if it gave him a fever I wouldn't be sure if it was the bug, covid or the MMR... (he's had the MMR now). Anyway, I can understand why some might want to put it off.

OP posts:

OmgThereAreNoPlanesAboveMeNow · 01/05/2020 08:50

I was asking whether, given that a deadly disease is rolling out in front of our eyes, it might change the minds of those who choose not to vaccinate their child at all.

No it won't. It would if babies were dying. I've said from the beginning that if the virus was more dangerous to babies rather than older and ill, everyone would sit on their arses at home without a complaint. I am pretty confident it would also move the anti vax. They can only afford to be anti vax because the really dangerous ilnesses were basically eliminated. By vaccines🤷🏻

mrpumblechook · 01/05/2020 10:54

What about the people who had the SARS one and were compensated after for the terrible side effects it had on them?

Do you actually have a link to that or is it just more bull shit from social media.

mrpumblechook · 01/05/2020 10:59

As an aside, someone mentioned that their GP told them the uptake of current vaccinations has dwindled a bit.

That's understandable because people don't fancy visiting healthcare settings at the moment or anywhere due to the risk of catching COVID-19. Arguably it's not really necessary anyway at this minute if people are staying indoors as they are not likely to be exposed to other diseases either.

Brogley · 01/05/2020 11:23

@mrpumblechook I wonder if they've confused the SARS vaccine with the leukaemia drug trial mentioned above? Because there is no SARS vaccine.

mrpumblechook · 01/05/2020 12:23

I wonder if they've confused the SARS vaccine with the leukaemia drug trial mentioned above? Because there is no SARS vaccine.

Maybe. It is a worry that some people spread such misinformation regarding vaccines.

Brogley · 01/05/2020 13:22

And without fact checking it before they repeat it to others.

user127819 · 01/05/2020 14:23

There are several SARS vaccines developed, and they have been used on people, but because the threat of SARS is essentially eliminated for now, the vaccines were never tested to the level required for widespread usage. It wasn't the huge amount of money to develop a vaccine for a disease that had fizzled out. It's not hard to make a vaccine, it's the testing that takes time (usually many years, which is why I can sympathise with those who would be hesitant to take a coronavirus vaccine the testing of which may be compressed and shortened).

user127819 · 01/05/2020 14:24

*It wasn't worth the huge amount of money

mrpumblechook · 01/05/2020 14:58

usually many years, which is why I can sympathise with those who would be hesitant to take a coronavirus vaccine the testing of which may be compressed and shortened

That will mean that we don't know for absolute certain that it won't have any long-term effects. We don't know the long-term effects of getting this virus are either though. All we know is that it can be very dangerous in the short-term and it therefore wouldn't be surprising if cause long-term damage in some people.

user127819 · 01/05/2020 15:36

@mrpumblechook
No, we don't know the long term effects of the virus yet either, which is why I also sympathise with those who don't want to get the virus. It's not an either/or thing.

PhilCornwall1 · 01/05/2020 15:54

For one of ours, it will be down to him if he has it, as he's 18 and as such has to make the decision even though he lives in the family home, he can absolutely refuse to have it. The other is 13, so it would still be down to us you could say.

As far as me and my wife are concerned, it's completely her choice if she has it and nothing to do with me. As far as I'm concerned, if it's a live vaccine, it's a definite no, I can't have it. If it isn't, the decision in a way will be out of my hands, as I'm sure I will be told that if I don't have it, at least one drug I am on will be withdrawn.

mrpumblechook · 01/05/2020 16:24

No, we don't know the long term effects of the virus yet either, which is why I also sympathise with those who don't want to get the virus. It's not an either/or thing.

It may possibly be in either/or thing for many, perhaps most, people and that is something people should consider. We don't know the long-term effects of either. We only know (or will know in the case of the vaccine) short-term effects and the vaccine is likely to be the much better option in that regard.

JeSuisPoulet · 01/05/2020 16:30

It's the middle classes who pay for holistic twaddle who tend to decide their kids can't be vaccinated. They rely on everyone else doing it for herd immunity though. We have many of them in dd's year group and an unsurprising number of them are allergic to most food groups as well

These people won't "get it" because it is unlikely to affect them. If it does that will be what changes their minds. Fake health news and the likes of Trump don't help trust in medical experts, let alone Gove and his "we've had enough of experts" and our govt now blaming "science" for their lack of action. I strongly suspect LESS people will want to have the vaccine as politics has now contaminated faith in our science and health ethics.

MissConductUS · 01/05/2020 17:44

As far as I'm concerned, if it's a live vaccine, it's a definite no, I can't have it

You're in luck. None of the current vaccine candidates are attenuated.

www.who.int/blueprint/priority-diseases/key-action/novel-coronavirus-landscape-ncov.pdf

tilder · 01/05/2020 19:58

'I'm not a conspiracy theorist but...'

Usually followed by conspiracy theory.

AvocadosBeforeMortgages · 01/05/2020 20:19

When the meningitis vaccine came out, I was in primary school. I distinctly remember DM deciding it had been "rushed out" and hence declined it for me. I chose to have it when I went to university.

I had all the other childhood vaccinations (though I was born several years before the Andrew Wakefield MMR paper was published). I always used to consider her fairly rational, though given that she's still a keen Brexiteer I've come to question her ability to rationally assess the evidence in front of her...

I suspect there would be a fair few other parents like her.

However, given that a successful vaccine has never previously been found for another coronavirus, I am sceptical that we'll get one. I think it will become endemic, in the same way that Spanish Flu and Swine Flu (both the H1N1 strain of flu) have become endemic. Life will return to normal, and most people will learn to live with / accept the risks of day-to-day life.

Incrediblytired · 01/05/2020 20:30

I think they’ll just carry on with their mental conspiracies and benefit from the rest of us having it. None of them are epidemiologists, they just think they know better.

Truthpact · 01/05/2020 20:36

I'm not against vaccinating at all. I think people who refuse mmr vaccines are stupid people who will likely regret their decision when their child gets one of those diseases.

But I'd be a bit wary of this vaccine. Mainly because it's been rushed, but this virus will eventually change to get around the vaccine, just like flu does. I'm not sure what good it will do long term, or what side effects will occur either.

Peapod29 · 01/05/2020 20:42

Hopefully it will shut them the fuck up, but I doubt it. My mil is an anti vaxxer but is rather paranoid about Covid and I delighted in telling her all about how they think the bcg vaccine might offer some protection against it... her response was she never had it as her father is ‘naturally immune’ to TB and that must have passed through the ‘genes’ to her boys (one of whom is dh).

Tootletum · 01/05/2020 20:44

Pretty sure they'll carry on with their uninformed "research" and carry on telling everyone that vaccines and/or viruses are a conspiracy theory coz...[insert total bollocks]

ZombieFan · 01/05/2020 20:47

Stupid isn't cured by facts.

Raaaa · 01/05/2020 20:55

My children are fully vaccinated, so am I apart from the flu which I don't want to have. If others chose not to do it that's up to them I don't really care.
I'm not an anti vaxer but I'm undecided on this new vaccine, something doesn't sit quite right

Brogley · 01/05/2020 21:31

this virus will eventually change to get around the vaccine, just like flu does

That's really not how viruses work.

The flu virus doesn't change itself to get around the vaccine, it doesn't have intelligence and it doesn't know a vaccine even exists. There are lots of different strains of flu and the immunity from the flu vaccine wanes fairly quickly so the annual vaccine contains whatever the most commonly circulating strains are for that particular flu season as they're the ones you're most likely to catch.

The coronavirus vaccine could potentially be given annually in similar way to the flu vaccine and will contain that years prevalent strain(s) although the latest findings are that you cannot catch it twice and genetic analysis has not found any substantial changes that would allow it to hide from an immune system that has already encountered it.

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