I hate anti-vaxxers

[An89]

How can anyone in this day and age be an anti-vaxxer? London and West mids currently suffering from a meassls outbreak. DS is under 1 so cannot yet have vaccine, I know of someone whose 10momth old contracted measels as they were too young for vaccine.
Ridiculous that reckless and tardy parents are putting all our children at risk. Actually terrible.

Did you fail GCSE biology as well?

Do you never, ever use the NHS because you know better?

Yes they are though when you have children under 1 who cannot be vaccinated and are at risk of catching measles.

I got measles at 11 months caught from an unvaccinated older child, I was really sick.
This was back in the 80s, measles could have been eradicated by now if people just vaccinated their kids.

For the OP - it could be worth calling your HV/GP because sometimes they will give the MMR early if you’re in an area with a measles outbreak.

Well I'm hardly vulnerable now am I. Having actually had measleles I'm sure I have immunity from that infection

The person who mentioned about getting cancer young and the covid vaccine, it's much more likely it's either bad luck or possibly to do with covid itself. There is a massive body of research showing how covid messes with the immune system and that it's potentially oncogenic, and most of us have had it multiple times by now. Who knows how cancer rates will be affected in future and the long term impacts of so many infections. But the covid vaccine does a great job usually of preventing serious illness and keeping you out of hospital.

Also, measles is so scary. Aside from causing death or disability, it can give you immune amnesia, which wipes the body's ability to recognise illnesses it has previously been exposed to, including ones you've been vaccinated for. Anti-vaxers disgust me.

Totally agree @An89

I had to deal with a student who had measles (at 21) because their parents hadn't had them vaccinated. The student was undiagnosed for about a week as the measles presented as flu. The student was in a large class of largely young women, with a lot of female staff. If any of then had been pregnant and caught measles, it could have been quite tragic.

And we had to rearrange assessments etc so this student's illness had an impact on another 4 or 5 students' workload & schedules.

PParents who don't vaccinate their children are deeply deeply selfish.

And it just goes to show that having children does not make anyone a better person - sometimes, it makes people far more selfish.

My godmother was deaf because she contracted measles and came from the generation where there wasn't so much provision for deaf people as there is now. Also polio, do we want that out there again?

When DD started university 6 years ago there was an outbreak of mumps among many university students because these young people were due to be vaccinated at the height of the Andrew Wakefield scandal.

You would think that, but some people don't think that way.

Many years ago I worked on a Meningitis helpline. Sadly I spoke to many parents who had children that were unvaccinated and went on to contract meningococcal meningitis / septicaemia - some of these children died (a few were found dead in their beds) or were left with devastating after effects including amputations. Many of these conversations were harrowing. Consequently my children were vaccinated.

Not at all. There is a communal responsibility to do what we can to keep others safe.

Your attitude is ignorant & selfish.

Totally agree with you, OP.
And schools should only allow vaccinated children.
I say this as an Asian. Everyone in my family is vaccinated though.

Off subject slightly, but if you are concerned about catching covid, you can get a booster jab from some chemists. Costs vary, but I paid around £100. As a vulnerable person (though not, in my eyes any more vulnerable than me!) my husband was invited to have a spring booster vaccine on the nhs. But as I wasn’t, I paid to have it privately.

I agree everything has a possible side effect. I worked an event for thymidimide victims. My heart broke for them all, all because it was too new. My children are all vaccinated but we didn't take the covid ones because it was too new. I'm sorry this happened to you.

Not true. For vaccination programmes to be effective in eradicating a disease the take up has to be 95%. It’s why in some countries (the US) you are not allowed to attend school if you are not vaccinated. If more than 5% refuse to take it up, then the disease often mutates with each contraction and the version that proliferates is not longer protected against by the original vaccination… so 100% of the population becomes at risk. Children, pregnant mothers and the elderly and those medically all vulnerable. They then put people in less developed nations at risk when they visit on holidays.

Talk to my MIL about the impact on her family of aunties contracting measles and never recovering (encephalitis leading to permanent brain damage), of a neighbour’s child dying due to chicken pox and of the polio ‘survivors’ who struggled their whole lives with acquired disabilities. People think these illnesses are minor, that it is just a rash and a temperature that Calpol can fix… they are often life threatening. But the idiots who are not taking the vaccinations up have no idea because they grew up in a world that didn’t have it due to people actually having their bloody vaccinations. Their imbecility puts us all at risk.

for context:

Prior to widespread vaccination, childhood diseases caused very high death rates. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, nearly one in five children in the US died before their fifth birthday, with infectious diseases like pneumonia, diphtheria, and measles being major contributors, according to Vox.com. For example, smallpox alone caused 400,000 deaths per year in Europe in the 18th century, with infant mortality rates as high as 80% in London

You’d rather leave your kids exposed to potentially deadly childhood diseases?

I’ve watched my husband struggle for his life, being told to prepare myself, twice.

If your children ever became seriously ill, I promise you, you will agree to anything being put into their bodies.

Please, get them vaccinated,

A huge part of the government vaccination programme is the social pressure to agree so that you are not bullied, ostracised, and labelled neglectful by other parents and institutions. Is that scientific? Is it right?

I am not anti-vax but I asked a question about a certain immunisation that my child was due, and despite this person being more than willing to give it to them, they couldn't answer the question.

I am just saying alot of trust has been lost with health professionals since the covid response. Remember these are the same professionals and institutions that were pushing the vaccination and holding the threat of not being able to go to on holiday, concerts, university over our heads.

People need to be educated about herd immunity, as we can see from some responses.

It is their choice and I don't personally agree with it but I do think anti-vaxxers shouldn't be able to send their kids to primary school. The schools should get proof of vaccination when signing up new pupils, and anti-vaxxers should have to home school if it's that important to them, so that other kids are not put at risk from their personal choices. This would lessen the risk to other families. It would be interesting to see how many parents would ditch their principles in a heart beat if they were not able to send their kids to school as a result.

Yes, anti-vaxxers can home school.

And it just goes to show that having children does not make anyone a better person - sometimes, it makes people far more selfish

This! I think it ramps up the selfishness that was already there often. And they see their children purely as an extension of themselves that they own.

I watched a documentary on YouTube recently about a young American “Christian” couple who didn’t get medical help for their babies Jaundice, claimed it was against their religion - it’s not. The baby died and they remained unrepentant.

You've hit the nail on the head there. You are not concerned about anyone else outside your tiny little life. The truth is you could have a major impact on someone else's child, but you still don't care. You, and all those like you, are selfish, nasty people. In fact, your concern is only for yourself and not even for your children. If one of your kids gets measles badly and is permanently damaged in some way, you might have cause to question your decision. You probably wouldn't though because of your ugly and absolute egocentricity.

I do give a shit and actively judge/ preach/ criticize people who did not/ do not vaccinate their kids. One of my friends is now looking to get her 10 year old vaccinated as a result. If someone wants to stop speaking to ne because of it - fine, they can fuck off. But I wish childhood vaccinations were compulsory.

You know why I feel this way? Because I know statistics of how many children died historically before vaccines were rolled out. From preventable illnesses we are seeing returning now. Almost every family had at lest a couple of kids not surviving to adulthood - you have to be mad to want this shit returning. I wish ativaxxers put themselves in danger, not their kids.

I hate to break it to you but Covid variants change so often that the vaccine is very unlikely to give you full protection. Also, unless you’re a walking microbiology lab how exactly do you know it’s Covid?

I think we need to not lump the Covid vax in with vaccines for preventable diseases.

my DD likewise - one of her close friends at uni had been seriously ill, had to take a year out in sixth form, and permanently affected by contracting mumps at that time.
I don’t hate parents for making bad decisions for what they mistakenly thought were valid reasons, but I do hate Andrew Wakefield and his ilk. And Kennedy…cutting vaccination programs worldwide will kill millions of children and leave even more permanently impaired.