All of you who CHOOSE not to vaccinate your children

[UniqueAndAmazing]

Do you realise that's the reason why there's now an epidemic of measles in Wales?

You know children with auto-immune problems, children with cancers, children with allergies that mean they can't be medicated, children who react badly to drugs?
You know them? They're suffering because of you not wanting to vaccinate your child.

You have no medical reason for not vaccinating, but plenty of reasons TO vaccinate.

You are causing a whole generation of children to be endangered from a preventable disease.

Measles can be fatal
(that means it can kill )

I totally get what your saying Misfor-I actually do. And my god I'm the first one to be worried about my kids above all others so I get the idea that if I had a child who had appeared to regress following MMR I'd be so nervous about any subsequent children. I work with kids with disabilities and chronic illness so would never wish the heartache that comes with that on anyone.

I just think there are too many people who have just listened to the scaremongering (a lot like what has gone on here) or haven't even bothered to properly research comparative risks of each choice. I had measles as a child (single vaccines in those days and I missed one because I was ill so slipped off the schedule) and have had many years of hearing loss, surgery and problems as a result of measles encephalitis!). I guess what irks me so much is that other people's choices put my baby at risk of the same problems I had if he gets measles in this outbreak!

I know lots of people right now are saying they won't do it because they don't want to upset their baby...not a valid reason really!

This is also worth a read...

www.mamamia.com.au/news/anti-vaccination-rhetoric-what-to-say/

God there is so much wrong with that article. You do understand joules that the people who link MMR with their child's regression are saying absolutely nothing about the rise in 'autism' (for the ten millionth time there's no such thing as 'autism').

Didn't bother to read the rest as it was clearly written by someone with no clue.

Difficult to criticise an article you can't be bothered to read!

It doesn't matter whether people who believe their children have regressed after MMR talk about autism or not- that is one of the reasons people give for not vaccinating. When I say "it doesn't matter" I a referring to this context only- before anybody accused me of disrespecting anyone.

The article is trying to dispel myths. And "MMR causes autism" is a widely disseminated myth.

Hey hang on. I didn't say MMR never causes autism (& I could introduce you to parents, paediatricians, neurologists, people working in autism research & immunologists who think it sometimes - rarely but sometimes - does). I said that the claim that MMR is responsible for the rise in autism is not the same thing. No one serious has ever suggested it is.

Stop confusing the two. The rise in 'autism' has nothing to do with whether the MMR sometimes causes damage which becomes labelled (along with a hundred other conditions) as autism.

My ds was born in 2003 and so the mmr debate was still well and truly still in the media on all fronts.
My son had significant developmental delay (was born with undx iugr) and a query cp dx as a neonate.
I did a lot of research on the mmr.
I was unconvinced by AWs research and resulting paper.
So ds had the mmr at 13 months and the booster before school.
As did ds2.
The so called rise in autism is simply IMO the fact that more people are aware of autism and asd and that children hw would have "fallen through the cracks" so to speak are now picked up at an earlier age.
And the fact the population is increasing year on year of course.

I'm not confusing the two.

The article you dismiss is aiming to dispel myths. And "MMR causes autism" is a myth that is widely heard.

I thought that after that study several years ago in the US, and mercury was taken out of the vaccines, the number of children being diagnosed with autism fell? That study was peer reviewed was it not?

Link?

I meant to say the number of children in California diagnosed with autism fell.

not pointless stirring - absolutely right and well said. i know several people who are immunocompromised and these people rely on herd immunity for their own safety. we live as part of a society and have a moral obligation to consider the needs of others as well as ourselves/our children.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15184908

How many cases of complications (not rashes, fevers and expected side effects), but life changing events. And please, causal links - again not correlation.

I can't give you numbers but I will tell you this; when your DD is one of the 'less than 1 in a million' who has a life threatening reaction to a vaccine, all the reassurances in the world don't change the (irrational) guilt that your decision put your child in ICU. The other thing that doesn't change (no matter how many reassurances your receive) is the concern that if 1 child has had that reaction the other may well have a similar one (which is why my older child will not be having the MMR as a booster to his measles and mumps vax).

I feel for anyone that has had a child with a severe (I mean anaphylaxis) reaction to a vaccine. I really do, but this is not a reason for everyone to avoid vaccines. A child could just as easily have a severe reaction to an orange, egg, nut anything, even a virus.

The same can be said for anyone that does not vaccinate and then their child becomes ill, but while there is a good chance it wont be your child someone elses child could be affected.

I agree - all children should be required unless there is a medical certificate to say no.

but this is not a reason for everyone to avoid vaccines.

I agree that it's not a reason for everyone else to avoid vaccines, I know how rare that degree of reaction is (although I've had the same kind of reaction to a different vaccines myself - I didn't think much of it because my dc are adopted).

Man dies in Wales. Possibly measles as cause. But hey a bit of calpol should have sorted him out......

Too much hysteria? The estimated death rate is 1in 1000 in developed countries.

Nelly my husband could very easily have been the first mortality case.
My husband collapsed and thankfully I was home; looking after daughter who had confirmed case of measles, and could call for urgent medical help. His sight has been damaged and so has his liver and he will not be fit for work for a long time all because of 'just measles'. If he had known he had not any immunity he would not have gone near our daughter.

My 16 yr old son who has ASD and a confirmed egg allergy ; hospital medical unit food challenge test ; he was on the phone to his GP demanding MMR and explaining he was happy to take the risk of a serius allergic reaction over the risks of ending up as ill as his dad the day after.
He commented standing on lego was far worse than how he felt after the MMR and remains the same quirky genius pain in the neck he has always been.

I think its 1:10 who catch measles develop complications that could have long term health implications contrasted against the smaller risks of reaction to vaccines.

There is a need make informed choices as to which group you or your children fall into; its either the ones who are most at risk if they had the vaccine or the ones most at risk if they do not.

It's awful that some people do die of measles. But people die of other illnesses too, notably swine flu. We don't get individual reports from the government of people who die from swine flu. Why do you think that is?

"We don't get individual reports from the government of people who die from swine flu. Why do you think that is?"

Yes we do! Don't you remember the last outbreak?

Yes I do seeker - I had it myself at that time, it is horrid. So why isn't swine flu included in the vaccination schedule?

I think this could be the tip of the iceberg tbh..
The mmr uptake in the SE for example is far less than in Wales?
Is the SE next?
Why Wales?
Why now?
Is measles like WC and CP...does it come round every 3-4 years?
If I had a small baby, sick child or unvaccinated dc I would be very worried now :(

Lottie, it is.
The annual flu jab!

I don't know. Possibly because the vaccine only lasts a year? It is certainly available, and vulnerable people are encouraged to have it.

It's important to remember that measles is, apparently, one of the most infectious (contagious? Can never remember the distinction) diseases going. So epidemics spread quickly.