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.

Same here ...

Lack of intelligence and anti vaxxers go together.
Also Facebook!
Who uses that-it’s full of terrible misinformation as you have found out, @FirstTimeMum881

Vaccines don’t cause autism- They save lives .
Polio, Measles ,these were killers.

Chicken pox vaccine spares potential agonising shingles when child becomes an adult.

The Royal kids have vaccines - if it’s good enough for them, it surely must be safe.

See what happens in what respect? Because as long as they remain totally insular, they're likely to be protected against the illnesses we vaccinate against, other than tetanus, I suppose. But when they no longer remain isolated, we know what happens.

What makes you think most vaccines were developed under 'old left liberal guard' what - administrations, I guess? What the actual fuck do you mean by injected by your political opponents? The covid one was developed and rolled out under Trump, actually.

This is the kind of muddled, hard of thinking approach that most anti vaxxers seem to take. There is no actual joined up logic here. Just uneducated conspiracy.

I joined a FB group years ago about a very serious terminal dog cancer ( osteosarcoma)
I had to leave the group for my own sanity.

Most were American and absolutely batshit.

Their go to “ cure” was CBD and Lavender oil.

They’d post pics of dogs that were clearly desperately Ill with tumours blasting the bone apart. ( it’s a terrible disease)
Euthanasia should have been done like months ago- but they were “ kicking cancer’s butt” by allowing their poor dog to struggle on.

I had vets private messaging me agreeing saying it’s pointless to argue with these idiots.

Do what you think is best for your own child, advised by your doctor or health visitor.

I'm actually still bitter that my colleague who is openly anti-vax was promoted over me at work (we work in a hospital!!)

Mixture of not seeing everybody's kids dying of Measles, Polio, Tetanus, Diptheria and Polio/losing limbs to Hib sepsis, magical thinking and what I am beginning to suspect is an element of Eugenicism - they think their children will survive and the poor/not white won't.

Talk to your doctor. You know, an actual medical professional

And research what happens to children who get the actual diseases. It's not pretty

My sister got measles in her eyes. Ruined her vision

This is true. I went to an American university and before I started, I was told I needed to get some extra vaccines. I was already fully vaccinated under the NHS protocols. The nurse at the GP's clinic couldn't believe what they expected. Then when I went to enrol? I was told I needed an extra dose of the rubella vaccine.
Saying that, I am very pro vaccination and worry about this trend. One of my teenage dcs friends caught mumps a couple of years, despite getting the MMR vaccine. His mum was very upset. The GP said your immunity wears off as you get older but if enough children in the community continue to get the vaccine, there will be little going around so your body will be able to fight that. He was very poorly with it.

So @ThejoyofNC if your child steps in a rusty nail or similar are you going to refuse the tetanus shot ?

what I am beginning to suspect is an element of Eugenicism - they think their children will survive and the poor/not white won't

There's also no consideration given to the fact that we also vaccinate children to protect our wider vulnerable communities - immune compromised, cancer patients, very vulnerable elderly, etc.

But when challenged the answer will be some version of "not my problem".

👏👏👏👏

Well said. I did exactly the same. I am not a qualified health professional and when it was time to vaccinate DD I talked to... health professionals.

Do these uneducated people not understand why we no longer have smallpox or why polio has been almost eradicated? I remember seeing children in leg braces from polio when I was a child. I have crap eyesight and hearing loss because I had measles as a child.

I simply don't understand why posters like @ThejoyofNC think they know better than health professionals who have studied for many years.

@ThejoyofNC several posters have asked you why you haven't vaccinated your children. Why haven't you replied? Why do you think you know better than doctors? How do you think smallpox was eradicated? Why do we not see diphtheria or polio in the UK these days?

Foolish response. How is asking if you trust RFKs medical expertise a "conspiracy theory". You just won't answer because you understand my point perfectly. Well, don't say you weren't warned.

My doctor told me my tonsils were inflamed when he looked down my throat. I don't have any.

In terms of autism/cancer rates, that kind of thing.

Remnants of tonsil tissue left behind can become inflamed

You would have to control for a lot more variables than just vaccination.

Or spend some time researching your own family tree. It's shocking how many children died.

@RampantIvy I don't think I've said anywhere that I know better than anyone else but happy to be corrected. In all honesty because whatever I say will make absolutely no difference at all as people are so opposed and will just lead to further attacks like the one that was deleted. If I say I did my own research then it'll be that I'm an uneducated fool and couldn't possibly research something. If I say there's a cultural aspect that'll be a whole new can of worms.

As I said, I'm not against vaccines for those who choose to have/give them. I however made a different decision.

I also don't owe people anything on here.

And past studies have found that while there tends to be less assessment and screening, when screened Amish children have the same rates of ASD as the rest of the population.

We had the same when our children moved from the UK to the US schooling system. They were fully vaccinated by the UK schedule (apart from the varicella vaccinations) but the recommended schedule differs slightly and if the ‘computer says no’ on the timings, they need to have additional of the ones they’ve already had, to be allowed to go to school. For chickenpox, they had already actually had the illness, but either had to have the vaccination anyway or a blood test to show antibodies.

Our only other option would’ve been to homeschool, but as we’re not anti-vaxx it wasn’t too much of a big deal, although slightly annoying to have to have repeats.

Huh, I’m British living in the US and have had the opposite experience - the only vaccine sceptics I know are from and live in the UK. Where we live the state schools have a strict vaccine mandate (strictly only medical exemptions), so your kid can’t attend if they don’t get their jabs. I know this varies widely depending where in the US you are though….

It may well be true that with modern healthcare few children die from measles, but remember that there are always some children who are already very unwell who can't have the vaccine. They rely on the rest of us to vaccinate our children to keep that herd immunity high enough. That's one point. Another is that even children who don't get these illnesses badly are going to be miserably unwell for several days and that affects the whole family. Time off work for working parents, time off school for siblings who also pick the illness up, and who wants to see their child feeling really miserable and poorly when they could have escaped the whole thing?

My reply was deleted. Possibly the second or third time I've had a deletion in umpteen years on MN. I wasn't the only person to say what I said, but others perhaps used more words. However, I now see the error of my ways. I see that the non-vaxxer on the thread is the sanest person here and her children are extremely fortunate that they have had no vaccinations at all, not even tetanus.

People were definitely vaccinated against measles in the 1980s, it maybe before the mmr but before that there was a separate measles jab.
I was born in the 60s and vaccinated against measles.