Why so many anti-vaxxing mums

[FirstTimeMum881]

I have a 5 month old baby and I'm going back to work at 7.5 months and planning on pumping milk at work. I was looking for tips so I joined some Facebook groups on breastfeeding and pumping and also made an account on babycenter as it had a lot of threads on the subject. OH MY GOD. They may as well rename these groups "Batshit mums against vaccines" because the content is insane. My favourite is a mum of a preemie refusing donor milk from vaccinated mothers. Lots of others paranoid their babies have autism because they had their 8 week jabs and they noticed their babies love staring at the ceiling.

I'm aware most of these women are in the US but what the hell is going on??? It's like i stepped into a parallel universe.

O agree though that we have lost the folk memory of a lot of these illnesses. Unless they had lived abroad in certain countries, most mums in the UK have had very little exposure to these illnesses.
When I was at school all the boys knew mumps could cause male infertility for example. And we all knew mums could lead to hearing or sight loss.

I had whooping cough as a child. Not fun! I remember being hospitalised.
Most anti-vaxxers are main character energy types so desperate to be pure, different and special that they lose their wits. I guess we wait for the deaf, blind, paralysed, oxygen deprived or even dead kids to appear in social media... otherwise - for these people at least - it isn't happening. Only once they start to see it with their own eyes will they start stepping up to protect their kids. Such short memories - it's not been that long since polio, measles, tb etc were almost eradicated.
SMH.

I had a colleague, we have kids the same age, she said she believed in “natural immunity” like there is such a thing. People just don’t understand that in order to gain immunity you need exposure - but exposure is dangerous. They are not building “their own” immunity. They are just playing Russian roulette with their child’s health.

No none at all

Half these parents are sticking UPF in the oven for tea each night and feeding their kids synthetic milk. It only seems relevant when it suits their narrative.

I put little thought into vaccinating my children because the thought of them dying from serious illnesses was enough to persuade me. Hope that helps.

In my experience, these people are too dense to understand the science behind vaccines and how they work. The covid vaccine caused a resurgence in this anti vax sentiment because of the speed it was deployed. You only need to go over to the pregnancy board on here to see how much skepticism there is about the RSV vaccine in the UK.

What you didn’t just follow forums of like minded people who have watched a YouTube video? How reckless of you.

Misinformation on social media. The algorithm is crazy, it will feed you constant anti-vax content.

I accidentally clicked on an anti-vax post on Instagram last week (it was parenting-related but didn't realise it was also anti-vax) and now I'm getting constant anti-vax suggested content. Probably four or five videos on my Explore page every time I refresh. I need to figure out how to block it, but I imagine if you're easily influenced/not very bright it's easy to be taken in.

See also the success of Reform, the Twitter algorithm, and the anti-woke brigade. It's all social media bollocks.

@Doyathinkhesaurus much sympathy. Dh and I had whooping cough in our 40s (the vaccine wears off after 40 years - who knew?) and it was such a horrible disease and took forever to get better (100 day cough was not an exaggeration). I have no idea how small children survive it (and I guess we vaccinate because not all do).

Why not?

Same.

Oh this vaccine has reduced DEATH and DISABILITY for previous generations, reduced hospitalisation and improved outcomes for children?

Great. Yes please sign me up.

Christ, really? My son had RSV at 10 weeks old, I wish the vaccine had been around when I was pregnant as it was awful.

I do think a lot of these conspiracy theorists just need to be told there’s a vaccine that their children can’t have and all the rich people are taking it - then they’ll be queuing up.

I an currently recovering from cancer (for the second time) and a Stem Cell Transplant. A transplant wipes out every vaccination you have ever had. I have a vaccination schedule, U have to have them all again and I can't wait to be fully protected.
Whilst I was having chemo an abtivaxxer acquaintance told me lots of rubbish including that chemo was mustard gas, there's a secret cure for all cancer but the powers that be, aren't releasing it as they are enjoying making money from cancer. He also told me that drs, "burst the bag with cancer in it to spread it and call it a biopsy". He's absolutely insane.

But why?

Why would you not give your kids the tetanus vaccine that has been in use for over 50 years, is absolutely safe and prevents against a life-threatening condition?

I mean, it's hard to get away from any other answer than "because you are being stupid", to be frank.

Yep, thread after thread of people asking if people are getting it/is it safe/should I have it as it’s a “new” vaccine. Because strangers on the internet can give you sound medical advice! I have an older child and I didn’t want her inadvertently giving my baby RSV if she picked it up at school so I got the vaccine when I was offered!

I had measles and mumps as a child. I can still remember them both, particularly the measles so it must have been very painful. My friend has a relative who had measles as a child and was left disabled. Parents who don't get their children vaccinated are very selfish imo.

@Bbq1 oh dear, you've just unlocked a horrible memory for me. A few days after my mum was diagnosed with breast cancer, she came home after work sobbing as a customer (she worked in a shop) berated her for planning on having chemo, told her she'll die because she won't drink whatever diet that person saw on Facebook, etc, I can't remember all the details.

Someone else made a similar comment after that and she had enough. She hid her cancer diagnosis from almost everyone after that.

In the 18th Century, people ate organic food and couldn't vaccinate. People were surrounded by death every day. Average life expectancy during the 1750s was 36 and nearly two-thirds of all children died before the age of 5.
My Grandfather's 6 sisters all died from TB.
There is no doubt that modern medicine has contributed to our longevity. To say otherwise is the path to madness.

Wow this is shocking and so not what you needed i am sorry you had to hear this

Honestly it's really scary what social media algorithms do. I watched a few wholesome homesteading reels on Instagram and suddenly I had a load of "why I don't vaccinate my children". There is definitely a lot of people pushing it online. I suspect some breastfeeding/ baby wearing/ cloth nappy Facebook groups have a bit of a pipeline to anti vax content.

There's currently a measles outbreak in Texas amongst children. Herd immunity for measles is about 95% vaccinated and these are areas where the numbers are much fewer. Anti vax people's kids are often protected by most people's decision to vaccinate. Now 13 children are in hospital- all unvaccinated.

I have all my vaccines and so do my kid.

I think it’s weirdly a symptom of too much bad news. I think you can talk about people dying back in the day but the world feels like it going to shit and the average human just can’t cope with the sheer scale of negativity around them. So the arguments about preventable deaths just don’t register anymore. Plastics are killing me, sewage in the waterways is killing me, UV rays are killing me, there’s a land war in Europe, the cost of living is crippling and so on.Not saying it’s right but it’s understandable.

Also people who vaccinate calling those who don’t are fucking stupid. Who’s ever convinced the other side of their point of view by calling them a moron?

I was thinking about the effect the covid vaccine had when I was reading the post. I was pregnant when it was being rolled out and the speed it went from 'we're not vaccinating pregnant women' to 'now we are', without much information on why was disconcerting, so I did debate quite a lot on what to do. I did get vaccinated, but I know lots of women who didn't. All of them have vaccinated their children though.

I've not seen the posts on the pregnancy board re RSV but, anecdotally, when I was having mine at the end of last year (I'm pregnant again), the nurse who did it said take up was a lot higher than expected.

https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-drug/def/mechlorethamine-hydrochloride

Actually there is a chemotherapy agent that uses nitrogen mustard but it isn’t quite as simple as blasting you with mustard gas. Your acquaintance has heard that and chosen to run with it. Really not helpful when people do this. And of course, the rest of their claims are absolute nonsense.

Of course we think before giving our DC’s any vaccines (or medical treatment).
We consult experts - in my case, DH, a doctor. What is your source of information?