To say no to covid vaccine for DS?

[Clarabell77]

My DS10 has asthma - mild albeit a chest infection 14 months ago ended up in an overnight in hospital on a nebuliser/steroid and he’s had to have a steroid once during that time for another infection.

He’s been identified as being at risk and offered a Covid vaccine. I’m not sure whether to allow him to have it as I’m sure he’s had Covid quite a few times when we’ve all tested positive at home - can’t test him as he won’t let me near him with a swab. He’s had mild symptoms, even when ours weren’t.

He’s had the flu vaccine twice and taken unwell within weeks on both occasions so I’ve opted out of that one this year. Does anyone have any thoughts on the Covid one? Ideally someone who has actual knowledge, not from YouTube, I’m not a covid denier or anti vaxxer.

AIBU to not get him the vaccine?

I didn't take all vaccinations pre-covid. I did a risk assessment and decided whether the risks outweighed the benefits. For example, I never got the flu vaccine. I decided the risks associated with the Swine Flu vaccine outweighed the benefits.

I did the same for covid and got all the covid ones. I had not intended getting a booster this year as I do not fall into any of the recommended groups.

That is, until I realised that what I thought was long covid was in fact an autoimmune disease triggered by a very mild dose of covid. I now, unfortunately, fall within the target groups.

I got the Covid vaccine January, 2022 and was diagnosed with a very aggressive cancer (leiomyosarcoma) in September, 2023. The one and only time I bled (haemorrhaged) was a few days after the Covid vaccine, I wasn’t having periods as I was on the mini pill. I think it’s as clear as day the vaccine caused my cancer.

Mid 50’s

I can see the link between the bleed and the vaccine, it's a known side effect, but why would you think a cancer diagnosis 20 months later has any link let alone a clear as day one?

😂 oh dear.

You absolutely have my sympathy but correlation does not equal causation.

Statistics show us that Shark attacks increase with increased ice-cream consumption. That's because shark attacks increase in the summer as more people go swimming and the consumption of ice-cream increases in the summer.

The chances of you going from zero in terms of your cancer to sufficiently advanced to be haemorrhaging within a few days is vanishingly unlikely.

My friend's previously very fit and healthy 6foot5 husband died of COVID.

Get your asthmatic child vaccinated.

Asthma and respiratory infections are entirely unrelated. I don’t give my kids the flu because they are not immunocompromised. They eat healthily, do lots of exercise and get a lot of fresh air. Plus they are older now, so it’s their choice. Vitamin C, D3 and Zinc supplements help the immune system. They rarely get even a sniffle and have never had a bad bout of flu.

Of course they're related!

They really aren’t. Asthma is often triggered by allergies, not by respiratory infections. Asthma management is far more important.

I am pro childhood vaccines to avoid deadly diseases, but flu jabs are a bit of a shot in the dark. They are usually based on whatever has been circulating in Australia during their winter, which may or may not be helpful here six months later.

My son’s asthma has always been triggered by respiratory infections.

People with asthma are have an increased risk of contracting respiratory infections, as well as an increased risk of experiencing complications of respiratory infections.

In which case your management plan will be different from ours.

Too embarrassed to mention it

That isn't what the inquest concluded though, is it?

"Cork City Coroner Philip Comyn told the family of Roy Butler, from O'Reilly Road in Waterford, that the cause of death was a spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage.

"In the verdict, Mr Comyn made recommendations surrounding the need to inform the general public of the need to report adverse reactions of vaccines, and who to report those reactions to"

"Setting out his reasons as to why he recorded a narrative verdict, he said on the balance of probabilities he could not conclude it was caused by the vaccine"

www.rte.ie/news/munster/2024/1010/1474653-roy-butler/

I am really sorry for your diagnosis but really, really it's not linked at all

I cannot comprehend how you can say this when you know for the vast majority of asthma this is not true

Well for us it is very much allergen related and nothing to do with winter colds, flu or covid. The OP would know if her son’s asthma is triggered by seasonal colds or covid.

That's not what you said, though.

TLDR...

We happily had Covid jabs as adults when they were vaccinating the population at large. That was a choice we made as adults with any impact good or bad squarely on our shoulders.

But I'm not happy to vaccinate my children with something where long term outcomes are unknown. It's not fair to do that to them. There's simply too much confusion / misinformation and not enough scientific research (purely due to lack of time) for us to feel happy about that.

Weirdly, my daughter is the one where a bad case of Covid could be a significant problem, yet she is the only one of the family not to have (as far as we know) had it yet.

Well in my experience asthma is predominantly an allergic response to an allergen. Until this thread I’ve quite literally never had any experience of it being linked to colds and I’ve never been told that having asthma would make anyone in my family more at fork during the flu season. I can see how it might be an issue if someone had pneumonia, but that is a bacterial lung infection not a seasonal virus. So it’s interesting to hear alternative perspectives that differ from my own, but it’s certainly not a given that flu vaccines are essential for people with asthma.

There is no evidence of any increase in cancer risk associated with Covid vaccines. People unfortunately get diagnosed with cancer every day, but you can’t just assume that the cause was something you did a week (or whatever) earlier. Everyone with cancer did something a week before their diagnosis that didn’t cause their cancer.

She’s almost certainly had low exposure, such that she wasn’t symptomatic. By now, you’d have to have lived in a sealed container or on a remote island not to have had contact with it. Respiratory virus contraction is always a bit of a mystery. During the height of the pandemic my sister had two colleagues who shared an office in a busy A&E. Both consultants. The fit, healthy chap got really ill with covid. The overweight one with diabetes (therefore more vulnerable) didn’t catch it at all.

Can you think of any reason why your son would be offered a free Covid vaccine if it wasn’t in his best interests? The government and general public really don’t love paying for stuff for the hell of it! I would trust the scientific experts who have assessed the pros and cons in great detail, using what’s now years of data.

I can see how it might be an issue if someone had pneumonia, but that is a bacterial lung infection not a seasonal virus.

Pneumonia isn't necessarily caused by bacteria, it can be caused by viruses and fungi too. If you have asthma and contract a viral respiratory infection, you have an increased risk of developing a secondary infection in the lungs. This is because, unlike in a person without asthma, the lungs are already inflamed. So when you add a respiratory infection on top it leaves the lungs more vulnerable to pathogens and complications.