Vaccinating healthy 11 year old

[Hocuspocusandfairies]

Can I please ask you all whether you'd get your healthy 11 year old vaccinated as my son has come home with a letter and I've no idea what to do.

It's so interesting that so many of us are more scared of giving our children a vaccine which has been tested and uses technological and scientific evidence in its development than the risk to our children of a novel virus, the long-term effects of which are unknown, although there is growing evidence of people suffering long-term respitory damage even if they survive the initial infection.

The technology behind the Covid vaccines was in development for years before Covid hit.

Minimising the threat of Covid whilst exaggerating the risk of the vaccine plays on every parent's worst fear - that we will make a choice which harms our child.

Covid is not a flu virus. It is a SARS virus. The external symptoms do not show everything which is happening inside the body. It is a disease which attacks the respitory system.

There is no evidence of any vaccine having long-term detrimental effects on the health of the people who take it. Vaccines have been extraordinarily successful in preventing death and disability from the diseases they protect against.
But no matter how successful their history, they will never be free of the undeserved stigma and fear.

There is lots of evidence of Covid having long -term detrimental effects on the health of the people who contract it and 22 children died of Covid in the UK from Jan 2020 to May 2021. (Source: ONS)

I am not saying this to bash anyone who has doubts or has decided not to vaccinate. As parents, we all need to make decisions for our kids based on their best interests.

But there are so many claims about the vaccine being dangerous and Covid being no big deal in this thread, which are simply not backed up by scientific evidence and play into our parental fear that we may harm our kids.

Covid is not a flu virus. It is a SARS virus. The external symptoms do not show everything which is happening inside the body. It is a disease which attacks the respitory system.

Yet only one person I know who has caught covid since the omicron outbreak has had any respiratory symptoms at all, that being a mild cough. They are in an at risk age group and classed CV. Mostly it's just been a fever/headache for a day or 2

@Gardengates

"There is no evidence of any vaccine having long-term detrimental effects on the health of the people who take it. Vaccines have been extraordinarily successful in preventing death and disability from the diseases they protect against."

This is just ignorant and wrong. completely misinformed. There are thousands of people who have been permanently injured from taking the vaccine. I could share links to their social media pages showing you, but that would get me banned because we're only allowed to talk about the negative effects of covid, and not allowed to talk about the negative effects the vaccine has. Because that would be labelling people as anti-vax. Funny, how those 'anti-vax' people are the ones suffering from side effects from a vaccine they took. So not anti-vax at all, but are labelled and vilified for trying to raise awareness about their situation. Can't do that unless you've been injured by covid because it fits the narrative. 🤫

[quote WineGetsMeThroughIt]@Gardengates

"There is no evidence of any vaccine having long-term detrimental effects on the health of the people who take it. Vaccines have been extraordinarily successful in preventing death and disability from the diseases they protect against."

This is just ignorant and wrong. completely misinformed. There are thousands of people who have been permanently injured from taking the vaccine. I could share links to their social media pages showing you, but that would get me banned because we're only allowed to talk about the negative effects of covid, and not allowed to talk about the negative effects the vaccine has. Because that would be labelling people as anti-vax. Funny, how those 'anti-vax' people are the ones suffering from side effects from a vaccine they took. So not anti-vax at all, but are labelled and vilified for trying to raise awareness about their situation. Can't do that unless you've been injured by covid because it fits the narrative. 🤫[/quote]
I don't think MN has any issue with sharing reliable scientific evidence of issues with the Covid vaccine.

Random social media pages aren't evidence.

@liveforsummer

Covid is not a flu virus. It is a SARS virus. The external symptoms do not show everything which is happening inside the body. It is a disease which attacks the respitory system.

Yet only one person I know who has caught covid since the omicron outbreak has had any respiratory symptoms at all, that being a mild cough. They are in an at risk age group and classed CV. Mostly it's just been a fever/headache for a day or 2

You have totally missed the point. The mild external symptoms of the infection doesn't mean that no internal damage is being done.

I doubt that they have had lung x-rays to check for lesions

@Gardengates there are a number of inaccuracies in your post. There are numerous documented cases of long term effects of the vaccine - I myself have a friend now living with regular siezures as a result of the covid vaccine. This was originally dismissed by doctors but has now been established as the cause. There have been at least 74 instances of death (blood clot related) in this country attributed to the vaccine - this was reported recently in the Guardian. Plus we are seei g a rise in heart issues in younger people. These things have yo be factored in when making a decision on a young, healthy person having a (completely unnecessary) vaccine.

I doubt that they have had lung x-rays to check for lesions

I certainly haven't. If my lungs are indeed full of lesions though then they are entirely symptom free so I'm not overly concerned about them.

Absolutely not. My kids all had covid in the summer, at the time of delta, it was nothing for them. Since practically all their friends and schoolmates have had covid, yet mine have not been reinfected. No child I know has been ill with covid. Why vaccinate them against a disease that in the absolute majority of cases does them no harm whatsoever?

Why vaccinate them against a disease that in the absolute majority of cases does them no harm whatsoever?

Same reason for a lot of vaccine? To keep the disease under control, especially in pandemic?

@rainrainraincamedowndowndown

Why vaccinate them against a disease that in the absolute majority of cases does them no harm whatsoever?

Same reason for a lot of vaccine? To keep the disease under control, especially in pandemic?

But the vaccine doesn't stop people getting Covid!

We haven’t vaccinated our 12 year old. I don’t know if this means we won’t be able to abroad this year. Maybe. I hope by summer restrictions are getting more lenient so we may be able to. Who knows. I’m going to keep an eye on things and hope that there is somewhere we will be able to go.

@Pixies74
It's not perfect, but it certainly reduce transmission/infection, even with omicron as recent study suggests. I posted a link up thread.

@Hocuspocusandfairies

Can I please ask you all whether you'd get your healthy 11 year old vaccinated as my son has come home with a letter and I've no idea what to do.

I'm vaccinating my healthy 6 month old next week. Not for Covid, but to me the same thing.

Yes of course you should vaccinate your son

Absolutely not

Not for Covid, but to me the same thing.

What are you vaccinating him for?

@Gardengates

There are plenty of vaccine injured people. Unfortunately they are being silenced and the media are not covering their stories because it's seen to be discouraging people from getting the vaccine and they're labelled anti-vax. The doctors and people who come out in support of the injured are often shut down and levelled crazies or conspiracy theorists and made to be the villain. The issue is, they need money to fund the studies looking into the vaccine injured, but the bulk of the money provided to fund any research comes from the pharmaceutical companies themselves. They direct it to the studies they want covered that will give them the results they want you to hear.

All that being said, there is a Covid-19 vaccine damage bill bills.parliament.uk/bills/2926

[quote WineGetsMeThroughIt]@Gardengates

There are plenty of vaccine injured people. Unfortunately they are being silenced and the media are not covering their stories because it's seen to be discouraging people from getting the vaccine and they're labelled anti-vax. The doctors and people who come out in support of the injured are often shut down and levelled crazies or conspiracy theorists and made to be the villain. The issue is, they need money to fund the studies looking into the vaccine injured, but the bulk of the money provided to fund any research comes from the pharmaceutical companies themselves. They direct it to the studies they want covered that will give them the results they want you to hear.

All that being said, there is a Covid-19 vaccine damage bill bills.parliament.uk/bills/2926[/quote]
Thank you. People like me are so often dismissed.

It’s very, very difficult to get an exemption too. I’ve been refused one by the consultant because the problems I have are a know side effect (in his words) of the AZ vaccine. The official line is that I can have another make. But honesty - if you had been though what I have, you would run a mile from all of them too. Especially after having covid which was a mild cold for a few days.

He says he doesn’t agree with no exemption but that his hands are tied. I’ve spoken to many other people with confirmed vaccine injuries who are in the same position as me.

It all adds fuel to people who claim we are making it up, or are anti vaxxers, because if it was true, we could be exempt. It’s not been made easy.

Absolutely I will. As soon as my 11yo is able to be vaccinated we will. I know of a 10 year old who has lost all sense of smell and not got it back since having covid 5 months ago. I've heard of children aquiring asthma following covid infection and others with post-viral fatigue, all these things are less likely if vaccinated. Polio is only serious in 1% of cases, but if you never know if you are going to be in the 99% or the 1%.

We also like to travel and vaccines will probably make this easier - although we wanted to go to the Netherlands in a couple of months and ironically my 11yo without any vaccine could go but my double-vaxxed 14yo can't - go figure

@Narutocrazyfox

There is no good reason - not a single one - to vaccinate an otherwise healthy child.

ALL regular vaccinations carried out in the Uk are done on healthy children - surely people know this? That’s the point of them.

@bewarethelibrarians you've misunderstood my post. I am only referring to the covid vaccine, not any other childhood vaccine. I've been more than happy for my children to be vaccinated against dangerous diseases that pose a significant risk, just not covid as the risk to children is miniscule. Add to that the fact the jab does not prevent you from catching or transmitting the virus. It's essentially a disease limiter which is best deployed to the elderly and clinically vulnerable. For most others the risks outweigh the benefits.

@Silverswirl
Devastating for those that have but honestly the numbers are tiny.

Tiny, but still larger than the number of children with moderate to severe post vaccine complications. Should we minimise those as well? Doesn’t seem very moral/ethical/nice.

Look, I’m not an idiot. I know post covid complications in children are relatively rare. That’s not my point. The point that some people can’t seem to answer is why they are so desperate to minimise the effects of covid in children (larger numbers affected) and exaggerate harms of the vaccine (smaller numbers affected)?

The only sensible answer I’ve ever got is that covid “just happens”. You don’t deliberately infect your child. Where as choosing to have them vaccinated means blaming yourself for that choice if something goes wrong. That’s a completely understandable view, and I wish people would be honest about that rather than minimising illness in children just because it makes them uncomfortable.

@Serenschintte

No I would not. I took my 14 year old son to the doctors for something else a few months ago. She stated there was no health benefit to him to be vaccinated. She said vaccination would protect others and enable us to get our freedoms back - where we live there are Covid certificates for museums, swimming etc. Neither of those are a medical reason to protect a child. Adults vaccinations should protect them. So I decided not to. We all had Covid recently, his vaccinated older brother was sicker than my son who was unvaccinated. There is only a 2.5 year age difference.

Yeah, cool story

OP it’s up to your DC ultimately, just educate them as much as possible.

My nieces have just become eligible and at first they were against but then their 8 year old sister has had Covid twice in the last 4 months and been really ill both times so they’ve decided to get it.

Because sometimes children do get really sick from covid so why wouldn’t they want to protect themselves?

I think at this stage people asking about vaccination for a 12 year old then they are likely to have had Covid already anyway.

Given transmission in schools since last September, depends on the area but many in dc class had it at the time of or before turning 12

This changes the risk / benefit especially if it was really mild / asymptomatic

Having said that I know the risk from the vaccine is small too so tried to weigh it up - hard to do as outcome is not that predictable

@bewarethelibrarians I am a risk analyst. That's my job. I've carefully analysed the available data (from official sources) and it is on that data I have based my decision.

In addition my children and I have had covid, and for us we barely had cold symptoms. None of us are vaccinated against covid. No long term effects.

I think this is likely a mistake. DS is 11, got invited for vaccine and when we turned up they didn't jab him because he isn't yet 12 and has no underlying health condition. He really wanted the jab and was quite upset he has to wait three months now until he's 12.