Will you be vaxxing your 5 year old kids?

[WoolyMammoth55]

I'm pro vaccine, have had 3 myself, DH has had 2 and has booked his booster. Our kids are vaccinated according to the normal schedule.

However we have a 4yo and something about the thought of vaccinating him for Covid once he turns 5 feels really wrong to me.

I haven't really got much to go on, although this article about teens and vaccine side-effects is part of it:
www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/10/boys-more-at-risk-from-pfizer-jab-side-effect-than-covid-suggests-study

Basically I just feel like we know some people react badly to the jab, it's not a perfect medicine because it was developed and rolled out under huge pressure. We know kids are at minimal risk of Covid and so it's not for their benefit they'd get jabbed, it'd be to stop them infecting grandparents... To me it feels like the wrong risk-to-benefit ratio for our children.

And I'm fully aware that if we don't get them jabbed, we'll be vax-passport-ed into a second-class existence! This is already happening to my DSis who lives abroad in a vaccine passport country and despite her and her DH being jabbed, they are under house arrest because their 2 kids - who can't be jabbed yet - aren't allowed to go anywhere!

Talk me out of this feeling of dread, anyone...?

Without a shadow of a doubt

Omicron has spelled out to us the importance of older and vulnerable people being vaccinated.
But recent evidence also suggests there is little benefit to vaccine 1 and 2.
Kids don't need to be vaccinated.

@Gingerbreadhoose

I'm honestly amazed at how many people are frightened of the long term effects of the virus, but not about the long term effects of covid, given it has been shown to cause heart and lung damage even in people who only had it mildly.

Yes it's really weird isn't it? Especially since the long term impacts of covid in kids can be really quite nasty. From PIMS to long covid, diabetes etc.

The government has done a brilliant job of ramping up the fear for parents to give it to perfectly healthy children for no benefit to them whatsoever. This is not about protecting children at all. Most children will not get seriously ill from covid especially in the 5-11 year old age group. And don’t think it will stop at 1 or 2 jabs, would you really be happy to vaccinate your child against something that doesn’t make them ill and is essentially cold symptoms every 3 months?

Yes I will have all my kids vaccinated without hesitation.

@Turquoisesea

The government has done a brilliant job of ramping up the fear for parents to give it to perfectly healthy children for no benefit to them whatsoever. This is not about protecting children at all. Most children will not get seriously ill from covid especially in the 5-11 year old age group. And don’t think it will stop at 1 or 2 jabs, would you really be happy to vaccinate your child against something that doesn’t make them ill and is essentially cold symptoms every 3 months?

All vaccines are given to perfectly healthy children, what do you think the purpose of vaccines is?

Yes the illness is mild in most, so was polio, but there are still cases of longer term damage and PIMS. I had my dd vaccinated against meningitis with less cases than there have been of severe illness in children from covid.

@Turquoisesea

There has been over 100 children deaths from covid already. Yes may be a low % but no one knows if their child could be one of the children who die. And then 1000s of children suffering from long covid.

Everyone can decide for themselves as they do with all childhood vaccinations.so weigh up and make a decision but dont assume those of us who opt to vaccinated are running scared. We have just weighed up the pros and cons and made a different decision.

Everyone can decide for themselves as they do with all childhood vaccinations

Ok. Do you don’t agree with restrictions being placed on unvaccinated children/children having to show vaccine passports to enter venues? It should just be the parents’ choice if they’re worried about their child becoming seriously ill from COVID?

Yes @Cornettoninja makes a really good point about meningitis. The Men B vaccine has quite a bad reaction afterwards if my two are anything to go by and the cases (and probably even deaths from) meningitis B are lower than covid. Yet most people don't worry about giving their child that standard vaccine.

I think the reason why there's so much anti vax sentiment around is precisely because vaccination has been so successful.

You don't have to go back far in my family to find people permanently disabled or dying in childhood from diseases like measles and TB. A lot of people have forgotten what life without widespread vaccination was like.

When people say 'back to normal' I wonder what they mean. Because it was normal in most of human history for disease, death and disability to be far more common than it is now. Perhaps we're heading back to that, but surely it's not a good thing?

Anyway, as far as I'm concerned, I want the choice to vaccinate my children and others can choose not to. But I don't think that choice should be denied when there are safe vaccines available (as safe as any vaccines are, which is pretty safe).

They probably mean going back to how things were in 2019, not 1919. Surely that’s pretty obvious.

No

@bumbleymummy

They probably mean going back to how things were in 2019, not 1919. Surely that’s pretty obvious.

In that case there's a real lack of awareness about how 'normal' in 2019 in terms of child health is in large part a result of widespread vaccination.

@bumbleymummy

I just want the choice to vaccinate my children and others to have the choice to or not to vaccinate theirs.

I dont think we should have forced vaccination. I believe this should remain a choice for all types of vaccinations.
I would support logical restrictions if they were required. But in this instance i dont see the point on restrictions on thise not vaccinated as both vaccinated and non vaccinated can catch and spread covid.
But i do feel we need to be cautious now with omi varrient and put restrictions (social distancing, clossure of venues, lockdown etc) in place if needed.

@teaandtoastwithmarmite

No absolutely not. She's 8 and I'm not doing it

Would you change your mind if she couldn't travel abroad next year with out it? Genuine question

Nope as it's no benefit to them. Maybe that's selfish but I'm still not doing it.

Quite likely if the Omnicrom variant turns out to affect young children worse than the previous variants. Also, if we can't travel abroad or go out anyway if we get there then that would probably persuade me. Subject to the latest info on side effects/risks to this age group being sufficiently reassuring.

@MGMidget

Quite likely if the Omnicrom variant turns out to affect young children worse than the previous variants. Also, if we can't travel abroad or go out anyway if we get there then that would probably persuade me. Subject to the latest info on side effects/risks to this age group being sufficiently reassuring.

Yes. If the benefits seem to outweigh the risks then I would to.