London parents - will you be giving your kids under 10 the polio booster?

[Digimoor]

I just got a text with details of the polio booster they are offering
Dependent on age it will be a 6 in 1 or 3 in 1/ 4 in 1 jab with the other childhood vaccines included (eg Diphtheria, Tetanus, Whooping cough etc)

IABU to think my kid is fully vaccinated so why bother?

YABU = I will give my kids the booster
YANBU = I won't

The OP is asking whether the definition of "fully vaccinated" = up to date with the vaccine schedule so no real need to add another shot or whether it means something else. It is actually woefully unclear from the NHS communications. It is a completely valid question to ask.

Why over vaccinate if not necessary? There is risk from vaccinations, albeit low (in the case of the polio vaccine anyway).

It's not me saying I'm not grateful for vaccines or that we shouldn't take vaccines, it's let's step back from a moment and try and make sense of what we're being asked to do and why. If there are good and valid reasons, then ok.

I have made the choice, after careful research, to vaccinate my kids today with their 5th polio shot.

I can tell you that people like this making these comments:

NewYorkLassie · Today 20:08

Yes I will, because I’m not a thick twat.

Added absolutely zero intellectual input into that decision. It's this kind of intellectual laziness which really holds us back in a society.

Yes, I definitely would. They usually get the final booster age 13/14 (whole country) but if it’s needed before then, take it!

I was surprised to see quite a bad TB/BCG scar on my baby nephews arm. I didn’t realise they vaccinated against that in London still.

We booked the earliest appointment we possibly could. Why on earth would you not vaccinate your child against such a dangerous illness?
They get one or two doses anyway as babies...... This is just a booster.

@Nanny0gg I always remember my dad telling me about going to work on the day the polio vaccine was released. Mothers and their children were queuing three times round the block of the clinic at 7.30 in the morning to get vaccinated - at that time, in the mid 1950s, there would be no one who didn't have experience of someone either dying from or being severely disabled by polio.

Dd 6 has just had her polio booster and ds 3 will go for his first lot at the doctors in the week.

I don’t understand why you wouldn’t give them the booster if offered ?

My friends dad was a polio survivor, but the damage it did killed him in his mid 40s, leaving her without a Dad.

I think a lot of people have never seen first hand the damage polio does.

If Drs think your kid needs a vaccine, then get the vaccine.

i agree with @hellyt3 there is more nuance here than others might suggest.

my 2 year old was called up and I booked him in and had it done asap. I also have a 4 year old - when booking my son’s appointment I asked if I could get hers done at the same time and was told no as it’s in order of priority. Fair enough. But she had to come to the appointment with me anyway. Whilst chatting to the nurse, it turns out my 4 year old shouldn’t have the additional booster because it is less than 12 months since her pre-school booster. But the nurse was clear that their records weren’t that detailed, so I would automatically get a text to bring her in and if the person doing the vax didn’t know about the pre-school booster, then she would have ended up getting a jab she really didn’t need. I wouldn’t have been too upset about that but equally am happy I don’t have to bring her in again unnecessarily

It's not just in London that you should be told to get the TB vaccine for your baby.

The protocol is supposedly if the baby has family members who they could come into contact with, who could carry TB.

The examples given are grandparents
but my DD was vaccinated simply because I mentioned to my HV in her first visit one SIL and a cousin who I saw regularly who went to countries with a high risk of TB.

Incidentally there is ignorance amongst healthcare workers of this as I had to tell individuals in my NCT group to demand the vaccination for their babies. We were ignored by our midwives due to the area we live in plus a mixture percieved social class and/or ethnicity.

@underthewestway the problem with @hellyt3 post it was full of ignorance about big pharma.

It is quite easy to find out that routine childhood vaccinations don't make pharma companies loads of money.

Oh bugger. Yes. But I keep forgetting. Right this week then.

I was going off the 20.31 post - apologies if I have missed a previous one.

Sorry yes, I meant in London as standard. Nowhere else gets it unless for the other reasons you mentioned, so I was surprised it was still routine in the capital.

I'm haunted by pictures of children in iron lungs, of course I'd give the booster to my children - in a heartbeat.

@RedWingBoots I could be wrong about big pharma in the context of routine vaccinations. But that doesn't mean the relationship between big pharma and the government isn't highly dubious and undermines trust in society.

I guess I have less faith in our political and corporate structures than you do.

That aside, my main point actually was let's understand what we are being asked to do. I don't see any controversy in that.

My ds (8) recently had his with absolutely no side effects whatsoever.

Hello BluOcty

Here is a list of clinics that are doing the booster www.nhs.uk/conditions/polio/vaccination-sites/.

Some are walk in, some you have to book. You’ll need to bring your child’s red book.

You don’t have to go to a clinic in your borough - I am in Islington and went to UCLH (in Camden) because it was convenient.

I expect that you do need to live in one of the boroughs affected.

Actually, I’m wrong (sorry). It now looks like all London children aged 1 to 9 can have it.

Thank you so much @CruCru for that super helpful post

Someone upthread made a reference to big pharma. I will be amazed if this is a giant plot to line the pockets of pharmaceutical companies.

I do suspect that one major aim of the booster drive is to prevent panic breaking out over polio in London. Getting the booster may reassure parents (to be fair, it reassured me) even if their children are up to date.

I expect that the children that the NHS are more worried about are those who have not had any of their vaccinations. Having a bunch of people go and get their boosters may mean that some of those children will now get vaccinated.

Oh God, sorry, I’ll get the multiple posts removed.

Thing is @hellyt3 if you start going on about big pharma making large profits on vaccinations that are frequently reported not to cost a lot, then the rest of your post will look like it's bollocks.

I expect that the children that the NHS are more worried about are those who have not had any of their vaccinations. Having a bunch of people go and get their boosters may mean that some of those children will now get vaccinated.

@CruCru I agree.

My DD like a few other children goes to nursery in an affected borough but doesn't live there. The population in London is also fairly transient.