I met a real life full on anti vaxxer today

[shiningcuckoo]

And some of her opinions were so out there and aggressive I had to walk away. Apparently if we hadn't vaccinated against measles we'd all be ok because measles provides immunity. And actually measles never hurt anyone. And polio never hurt anyone either. People being seriously ill was a conspiracy designed to get us to accept vaccines back in the day, al" heading towards the greatest conspiracy of all and that is population control and the existence of Covid. She apparently knows loads of "elders" who nursed people through polio. Apparently it's very mild. I asked her to define "elders" and she talked about my generation. My generation were vaccinated. No one had polio, never mind nursed others. And there is no Covid in Africa. And no Covid in Nepal. She knows this because she once went on holiday to Nepal. And she is applying to remove her children from Steiner to homeschool them because vaccinated teachers (it's mandatory here) are a poor moral example. Either that or are being forced . When I said that I didn't know a single teacher who had been vaccinated against their will (and I know loads having been a teacher for 20 years) she said that was just my opinion and one opinion counted for nothing. I had to leave her company.

Apparently if we hadn't vaccinated against measles we'd all be ok because measles provides immunity. And actually measles never hurt anyone.

I had a childhood case of measles that left me with a permanent 30% loss of hearing. The measles vaccine was new and I hadn't had it. No one noticed my hearing loss until I started failing school because I couldn't hear what the teachers were saying. I still need hearing aids.

My friend of many years is also an anti-vaxxer, hard to believe when he first told me. He's 70, ex teacher, very fit and active, and suddenly out of the blue started ranting about how it's all a conspiracy, the body's own immune system can deal with it, etc etc. I find it hard to talk about this with him as he's so sure of his beliefs.

An (otherwise) perfectly rational colleague told me that 'far more children have been injured by vaccines than have been saved by them' when I mentioned we were getting the MMR for our son. She was the editor of a lifestyle magazine that I worked for. She's now a 'sound healer' or some other pseudoscience bollocks. Fucking moonbat.

Vaccination is incredible. I think one of the saddest things about this is the toxicity around the debate with one side claiming the vaccine will regularly kill and the other judging people as unworthy of hospital treatment if they choose not to have a single covid vaccination. Both extremes have massively damaged the vaccine programme and I just hope this 'debate' doesn't impact on the take up of other vaccines

My grandma had a turned eye and very poor sight due to measles and a former colleague too. Opticians assistant I went to as a child had withered leg and built up boot and callipers from polio. I think people forget the very real effects measles, polio etc had.
A friends mum (nurse) volunteered at a vaccination clinic in Africa. Mothers walking for hours to get babies vaccinated. Yet so many here take it for granted or dismiss without thought.

@TheCountessofFitzdotterel, i absolutly agree with you! I am old enough to remember a couple of children at school who wore calipers on their poor little legs because of polio, I remember the actual smell of measles, I was so poorly with it. The only people I have some sympathy with for hesitating over the jab are pregnant women, it would appear that it is best for them to have the jab but it is still a decision I am glad I dont have to make.

My mum’s best friend had polio as a child (in the 1940s). She and my mum used to meet up at one another’s houses every Friday evening so she was a really regular part of my childhood.

She walked with crutches and callipers for the rest of her life and had to use a wheel chair for longer distances. She had painful operations and physical therapy throughout her life to try to restore her mobility. She lived with it every single day.

I work with several antivaxxers. These are scarily professional people. One actually believes Covid doesn't exist, which is considerably hurtful as in our very small team 3 relatives have died from Covid.

I've banned all Covid talk unless to do with work. We have all worked throughout Covid. It's madness.

@TheCountessofFitzdotterel

My parents used to know Piers Corbyn (my dad taught him at Imperial). They say he has always got fixated on things and then been completely impervious to reason.

Corbyn is old enough to remember the effects of polio so he has absolutely no fucking excuse

This does not surprise me.

I suppose all those babies that died from whopping cough 9 years ago were made up too?

I was pregnant with DD2 then. Giving the vaccine to pregnant women was considered 'experimental' then. Fortunately it appears it was worth the gamble.

I'm still married to one unfortunately!!
We are separated but still married and have kids. Constant YouTube vids of conspiracy theories and how I've changed my dna with the vaccine.

*he sends me I should have added

@Fluffycloudland77

When I first qualified it wasn’t that unusual to see a polio survivor in a built up shoe and callipers but I’ve not seen one for years so I’m assuming they didn’t live into their 80’s or I’d still be treating them. Polio was an exam question.

I wonder what she thinks of smallpox? Tis’ but a scratch.

I have a relative in her nineties who is a polio survivor. Unfortunately there is post-polio syndrome that brings back the symptoms and confers life long disability. Her life has been ruined for the last 20 years or more by this syndrome. I'm so grateful that my DM allowed me to be in the trial of the vaccine. It was still rife when I was a child.

My uncle died of polio at age 3.

A cousin has severe brain damage from measles as an infant.

A dear friend died during cancer treatment because of a preventable disease caught from an unvaccinated child.

Anti-Vaxxers can get in the fucking sea.

Send her to a Victorian graveyard to look at the ranks of children's gravestones where whole families were wiped out by measles/diphtheria and the rest.

Silly woman - she and her like are why we will be stuck with this virus for longer than necessary. Grrrrrr......

Roald Dahl lost his daughter to measles.

I know several people who limp due to polio.

The anti vax lot aren’t big fans of science or facts. They seem to get their information from YouTube. Totally bonkers. The admin of our local town Fb group is an anti vax and posts crap constantly.

I know someone locally who is a rabid Covid denier and anti-vaxxer. I heard yesterday he's just been tested positive for Covid.

Some of these theories though !! It's like taking a peek into some mad parallel universe

@vera99

One conspiracy is that the billionaire class realise that climate change population numbers will destroy the earth and that the earth's population needs to be brought down to 500 million so that their families and class can continue. The virus was released to create the scare and that the vaccines will begin to kill everybody in the next 2-3 years otherwise known as 'The Plandemic' or 'Great Reset'. The ones that are aware of this are 'Awake'.

They also think folk like Piers Corbyn and David Icke are wise and great leaders.

Yes but following this to its logical conclusion the elite if the world are more likely to want the remaining population to be the sensible sort who listen and follow government instructions rather than have the world's population depending on those anti vaxxers who come across as ranting idiots.

Out of our friend circle, only four of us have been vaccinated. Myself and dp included.
The ones who haven't been are very opinionated on the fact vaccines aren't needed, there is one ring leader shall we say. He smokes alot of weed and I do think that drives the paranoia about covid if I'm honest. The justifications is that We have an immune system. It's all about control and Covid passes etc, likening it to nazi Germany. Apparently now the government are passing a bill to stop protests, so that means we can't do anything about mandatory vaccines.

It gets abit awkward if I'm honest if it's brought up. I feel like I can't even tell them I'm getting boostered because it will mean I'm 'a sheep and worse than the government' and also anyone who has had phizer will be dead within three years.

If there is an underlying neurodevelopmental reason for being so gullible, perhaps in the future we'll be able to vaccinate against it

I dare someone to suggest that to an antivaxxer

I'd love these idiots to travel to the 1800s and see what life was really like pre Vax.

I have an old friend (who I haven't seen for about a decade because she lives overseas but until recently used to message a lot) who went properly down that rabbit hole. University educated to Masters level, worked in the media for over 10 years. Went properly tinfoil hat for about 19 months: posting about 5g masts, natural immunity and vitamin D etc and has since had a bit of a breakdown and sort of dropped out of life.

In this case it was driven by a bloke egging her on but there was an underlying base of depression and anxiety which I think needed some sort of catalyst.

I think a lot of antivaxxers (of the hardcore variety as opposed to the hesitants) are basically people who are mentally quite unwell and very lost and looking for something to grasp hold of.

I agree that a lack of experience of pre-vaccination times is not helping.

A relative, now in her early 70s, spent time in an iron lung due to polio. Her parents were told she wouldn’t survive the night at one point. She lived and, thanks to years of callipers, did walk again, but one leg was permanently shortened and her lungs never fully recovered. She said that the other children she met whilst in the iron lung died. She missed nearly 2 years of school and never fully managed to catch up. She then, as with many polio sufferers, developed post-polio syndrome.

My grandmother lost 1 young child to childhood illness, my great grandmother lost 2.

I was very grateful to be able to protect my own children.

I know a few. Some of them are mad conspiracy theorists, going full steam ahead with the 5G mind control theories but a few are more of the "what the fuck longterm effect is the vaccine going to have on us?" - and they're not general anti-vaxxers, just anti covid vax because of uncertainty.

I don't discuss it with most of them - especially the serious loons - but one friend I do, because she's more worried about her immune system reacting (she already has lupus). Her DDs have been vaxxed though - it's herself she worries about.

You can’t argue with stupid op.