Measles national incident - thoughts?

[Eleano]

In light of measles (a life threatening disease) now spreading across the Midlands thanks to vaccine sceptic parents not vaccinating their children, what do you think should be done to stop this epidemic of vaccine skepticism?

Clearly the government wants to stay on the fence in case of losing more voters but if you were policy makers, any ideas on what you would do?

Let's not overlook the fact that whooping cough is also having its biggest wave this year.

Seriously? You believe that if your child is not vaccinated against measles they will die from measles? How many kids have died from measles?
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/measles-deaths-by-age-group-from-1980-to-2013-ons-data/measles-notifications-and-deaths-in-england-and-wales-1940-to-2013

Between the years 2000 and 2020 there were 55,522 notified cases of measles in England and Wales.
The footnote says:

1. From 2000 to date: There were 8 deaths in children or adults in England and Wales that could have been prevented by the UK national immunisation programme i.e. the infection was acquired in England or Wales and the individuals were eligible for a measles-containing vaccine in this country.

EIGHT deaths in total (adults and children) that "could" have been prevented by vaccine, out of 55,522 cases over a period of 20 years. Three of the child deaths were in children who had "underlying immunological problems".

This is from the government's own statistics.

Well your username checks out. For starters death isn't the sole metric that's useful, people can be left with life changing disabilities after an infection. It also stands to reason that the more cases rise (which they are) the more deaths there are likely to be. Unless medically inadvisable to get the vaccine then its selfish to risk your child's health for some ignorant and unfounded beliefs.

They're also gambling with the health of third parties,

• those who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons
• those for whom the vaccines did not "take" properly (probably no more than 1% of the population)
• those whose immune systems are compromised because of other disease or treatment (such as chemotherapy)

And their possible future grandchildren - the age for first MMR is set at a year based on an assumption that the infant will benefit from maternal antibodies that don't wear off until about then. If the mother is unvaccinated and has not has the wild disease, then the infant is unprotected.

And of course by the time you're pregnant, it's too late for that baby (MMR not given during pregnancy, or if you could be in the v early stages of pregnancy, because of the live rubella component)

Can you actually read the message I was responding to? The suggestion was that unvaccinated children all die if they catch measles. I responded to that!
Measles might very well lead to other health issues. Do you have statistics on this?

what is ignorant and unfounded about watching a child have a severe and near fatal reaction to a vaccine? What is unfounded about watching a child react with severe high temps lasting for months on end and developing tics right after her preschool MMR vaccine? What’s unfounded about our health visitor saying the exact same happened to her son and therefore she refused to have her younger child vaccinated?
Unless or until it happens to your own child, you will dismiss anyone’s concerns as unfounded. It is you however who is ignorant.