MMR and anti vax chat at the school gates

[Snog]

I was influenced on MMR by Tony Blair who refused to confirm that his own son had the vaccine. Did this affect anyone else in their decision?

Blair was PM at the time

I didn't discuss at the school gates because MMR was timed to be offered before starting school.

That's funny, I wasn't influenced by what TB had to say about his own children. I made up my own mind based on scientific evidence.

There was an MNer (spidermama) who refused to vacc her children & talked about the experience of causing a mini-measles outbreak in England. How she'd been villified in the press. Tiptoed around the house in the dark while her children called out desperate for water.

It wasn't an appealing experience.

DD has had all her jabs and will always. Non negotiable in our house.

The end.

I must admit TB never occurred to me as a role model parent let alone a medical expert 🤷‍♀️

I assumed TB had the best info available to him

No TB didn't affect my decision to vaccinate my children at all.
Did you also send your children to Catholic schools because TB did?

Nope. Made no difference to me. I am/was educated enough to read the research and make up my own mind. Both my DCs were vaccinated and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

TB did have his son vaccinated (this emerged later).

His argument at the time for not divulging the information was that his son was a private citizen and his medical history should be confidential.

Yes, snd TB was correct to keep his DC out of any political agenda. We haven’t discussed Cameron’s DC or Johnson’s. What they do wouldn’t influence me. Vaccinations are non negotiable and DC should have them so that vulnerable DC (I’ll DC for example) who cannot have them are not jeopardised. It’s wrong not to vaccinate and it’s about time we got tougher about insisting on it.

It didn't affect me. TB was right not to comment either way. It's nobody's business and he rightly didn't want to openly criticise people who opted for singles instead.

It could have set a dangerous political precedent. I think that keeping info about kids to the basics (name, sex, age, school) is the right thing to do.

Op did you vacinate your child?

Ds I delayed because of anxieties about safety. He eventually just had 2. HV said it was fine as they were given later so had plenty of time to develop antibodies. DD also had 2 because she was very ill after the second and I refused a third. DS2 had separate jabs. They're all fine.

Not in a million years because I'm a responsible parent. MMR saves countless lives.

No I did my own research I'm not swayed by politics or famous people they are my children

TB said that back in 1998 (ish)

The amount of info which demonstrates the safety of this jab is extensive. If you missed the jab because your DC reached immunisation age at the height of the scare, then book catch up jabs now.

(And i can see why it would be discussed at the school gates, if parents were unable to give their younger DC the same jabs as their elder, school age siblings, as the single measles vax had been available on NHS until 1997 - withdrawn for admin reasons, licence not renewed at normal expiry point, not because it was ineffective)

I'm influenced by actual scientific evidence. I really hope you vaccinated your child/ren

There was a high degree of distrust at the information put out by the government at that time so it seemed like TB knew something the general public did not.

Except he didn't did he... He knew the same as everyone else - that vaccines are vital.

He was feeding the general mistrust of the government.

I have a biology degree, I am better equipped than most people to evaluated scientific evidence.

It is true that vaccines are good for the population as a whole, but not for every single individual. For certain individuals vaccines are harmful. The issue is how to predict which children they will do more harm than good for.

blue are you serious? Listen to This Podcast will kill you. There is a two parter on vaccines. Its very balanced. Vaccines are safer than the diseases they protect against.
I must admit that I was nervous about vaccinations (I delayed them) and had to weigh up the minute risk of a vaccine reaction against the risk of a potentially fatal illness. Now I'm more informed I know that vaccinations were the right thing to do.
By the way there have been numerous studies. Not carried out by big pharma as anti vaxxers like to think.

I'm not an anti vaxxer as such but I am suspicious that there is insufficient information in the public domain to identify in advance which children will experience serious adverse events resulting from vaccination.

See my post about the podcasts? Best thing I have heard about the topic.