Nhs worker friend refusing vaccine - future children

[Trying2611]

I feel like I am NBU but talking to my friend today who’s the same age as me 25, she works in a front facing NHS role and will soon be offered the vaccine, however she is saying she is going to refuse on the grounds that it may make her infertile not sure where she has heard this?

I said oh well you should think about getting pregnant now before your vaccine (joking ofcourse) and she said very angrily why do you think this is a joke it’s serious do you not care if you can’t have kids then she stormed off and won’t answer my calls AIBU or was she being ridiculous

Unknown risk is NOT the same as risk. It simply means “not studied”.

I’d expect clinicians to be able to think about relative risk in a more nuanced way that she seems to.

I feel the same way. I’m 30 and want to conceive soon so for that reason unless it proves it doesn’t effect fertility It’s a no from me.

This is doing the rounds on FB. The vaccine insert says the impact on fertility is unknown as it is unknown. Vaccines aren’t tested for their impact on fertility.

The impact of catching Covid on fertility is unknown. However, we do know that some virus’ do impact upon fertility. An example of this is mumps and male fertility. There has been a small study which found the virus is male patients.

There has been a

I hope as many people get vaccinated as is needed to put an end to this problem, but not at the expense of taking away their bodily autonomy.

If I was in her position I would do the exact same! There’s not enough evidence on the long term effects on fertility yet. My friend has decided to do the same.

However as it stands, I’m a front line worker who can’t get a date for a vaccine yet because all the appointments were taken by people who sit at a desk all day, but that’s another story

Yous understand that AUS/NZ etc are literally being told that their government isn’t approving the vaccine yet because it’s not fully understood but because of the scale of human suffering in the UK and US it’s being fast tracked.
Of course they can’t tell us this on the bbc because no one would get it

And to the people calling the fertility issue a conspiracy- there’s specific spike proteins in the vaccine which have an unknown but potentially bad effect on fertility, that’s not a conspiracy

@Laurapink0

“Unknown but potentially bad” sounds a fuck lot like a conspiracy theory to me...

My friend has been trying to conceive for over a decade and was told by her doctor to not have the vaccine yet as it could affect her fertility. I don't understand the mentality of some people implying that anyone who is wary of possible unknown side effects are stupid or selfish. Having the vaccine only protects yourself, nobody else, so there's no need to try and shame people into having it by calling them stupid/covidiots/selfish etc

@Shehasadiamondinthesky

About half of medical staff in my hospital are refusing to have the vaccine. Its become one huge argument between one half and the other. I've decided I can't talk about it anymore or i'll say things I'll regret. And yes I am having the vaccine.

My boss initially said she didn't want the Pfizer vaccine, but since changed her mind (presumably because she read more information) and when she was offered it last week, she had it. Another colleague who felt the same has also since asked to have it. A third who usually refuses the flu vaccine, had that this year and the covid one last week. We've only got one who definitely doesn't want it now, down from at least 4 a month ago (out of 20 ish).

So people do change their minds and hopefully uptake will be better in a month or two. There's an element of peer pressure, perhaps, but many people who were initially wary have since been reassured so I'm hopeful that continues.

I want to be vaccinated myself, but it should ultimately each person's choice, since there's no guarantee it's riskless.
I don't blame her for being concerned.

The impact of the vaccine on fertility is unknown. She is wise, at 25, to wait until more is known.

While the impact of the virus is know I presume? Must have missed that announcement.

As a front line NHS worker she has the choice not to be vaccinated but the NHS should also be able to have the choice to sack her for it 🤷‍♀️

[quote PaddyF0dder]@Laurapink0

“Unknown but potentially bad” sounds a fuck lot like a conspiracy theory to me...[/quote]
Nope. So essentially a spike protein HUGELY similar to syncytin-1,which is vital for fertility.
This means it is not currently know whether the vaccine will cause a woman’s body to attack her syncytin, thus causing infertility

It’s not a conspiracy

I think I am right in saying it is not just female fertility that has not been studied long term[how could it be as there has been no long term on anything about the vaccination] it is the possible effect on male fertility too, that is being talked about.

*so essentially the vaccine contains a spike protein

@TonMoulin

Btw the comments about fertility is because they found some RNA in the sperm from the vaccine.

Cue for questioning what will be the impact of the vaccine on fertility in general.

Plus of course, the fact that nhs workers have been advised to be careful if they are planning to conceive.

@TonMoulin please can you provide a link to the study that found vaccine RNA in sperm because I can't find it on pubmed and this seems very unlikely.

I mentioned the fertility issues to my Polish friend who spotted:

For example, taking that vaccine is forbidden for pregnant women in English version, but it's acceptable for pregnant women in Poland.

Can we please stop quoting the Thalidomide disaster in the '60s as a valid reason for not having the COVID vaccine?

1. Thalidomide was not a vaccine
2. Research protocols have tightened immeasurable since Thalidomide (and because of it)

It doesn't sound like Aus are in a hurry to vaccinate, can you link to a recent source @Laurapink0?

As the below was reported today:

SYDNEY: Under mounting pressure to speed up COVID-19 vaccinations, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Tuesday (Jan 5) said he would not take "unnecessary risks" and emulate Britain's emergency drug approval.

While vaccinations are already well underway in many countries, Australia's pharmaceutical authority is not expected to rule on candidate drugs for around another month, and is aiming to administer the first doses by the end of March.

japantoday.com/category/world/australia-vows-not-to-rush-vaccine-rollout-citing-uk-'problems'

Why don't you pop off in your time machine and come back with the proof that all the things that sceptical people are worried about aren't true.

Her body her choice.

Regardless of her reasons for not wanting it ..you could have just respected that and not made a laugh of her.

I'm in Ireland my dad is 62 works front line HSE he turned down the vaccine too when offered. For his own reasons . Nobody will be laughing at him or judging his beliefs.

YABU Its her body and upto her what she does with it. Like mine I may not have the vaccine either and work on a care home. And I'm not being selfish as we wear full ppe and test 3 times a week.

I will be refusing a vaccine too.

The fertility issue in women is to do with the spike protein that the immune system is triggered to fight. It's linked to the placenta and a similar protein. People think that if the body has developed cells to kill the spike protein that when pregnant will attack the placenta hence infertility. Certain elements of both are similar that at this stage they state it is highly unlikely this could cause infertility. Im not taking the chance until more is understood they have not stated that it definitely will not impact.

@Laurapink0, taken from USA Today:

Additionally, Pfizer spokeswoman Jerica Pitts confirmed the vaccine did not affect female fertility.

"It has been incorrectly suggested that COVID-19 vaccines will cause infertility because of a shared amino acid sequence in the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 and a placental protein," she said in an email to the Associated Press.

"The sequence, however, is too short to plausibly give rise to autoimmunity."

It is also worth noting that since late January, there have been over 44,000 COVID-19 cases among pregnant women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If anti-SAR-CoV-2 spike protein antibodies produced by the mother were attacking syncytin-1, and thereby the placenta, pregnancy complications or miscarriages would prevail, said Dr. Mary Jane Minkin, clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Yale School of Medicine, to USA TODAY. So far, there has been no evidence of the kind reported among pregnant women.

eu.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/12/14/fact-check-no-evidence-covid-19-vaccine-causes-infertility-women/3884328001/