[quote Nilbog]@RoyKentsChestHair the different decisions in your family are interesting.
What was the reason you were again the jab for your DS17?[/quote]
Mainly that the jab doesn’t stop you getting it or spreading it, and that the benefit to some people of it “potentially making symptoms less severe and less long lasting” is so woolly that it doesn’t feel worthy of a potential bad reaction for a small/insignificant gain for him.
We don’t have any family, so no older relatives to consider here, of course he’s at school, but not in close contact with anyone vulnerable, so I just don’t feel that he needs the vaccine, especially as Omicron is apparently pretty mild and that the virus will naturally evolve over time needing more boosters etc despite getting milder.
I’ve had covid and it’s shit. But tbh it was no worse than any other horrid flu/virus I’ve had. I had glandular fever as a teen and that wiped me out for months, just like long covid I guess. I also have a long term health condition which I treat myself because the NHS have let me down pretty badly over the years, so no I don’t always believe they have our best interests at heart. Decisions are fuelled by finances and big picture thinking even though they may not be right for you individually.
I’m not anti vax - they’ve all had their childhood immunisations. But they were done for them not just to keep unspecified strangers safe.
If there had been as many reports of bad side effects from the childhood jabs as for these I would have reconsidered those too. In fact I read as much as I could about it at the time (with all the controversy around ASD/MMR) and made an informed decision to go ahead, I didn’t just blindly do as I was told. I know of two people local to me who had brain haemorrhages shortly after taking their first covid vaccine, one of whom died. Yes. Could be coincidence, but it’s not a chance I’m taking with my children’s health and after the heart scare with my eldest I was very worried about either of them having it tbh. Obvs I couldn’t stop him, but I’m glad DS2 didn’t go ahead with it.
As far as I’m concerned nobody should be coerced into any medical treatment they don’t really want. Using the withholding of travel opportunities and attending social events to blackmail people into medical decisions is abhorrent, and has pushed me further away from wanting to get them jabbed rather than convincing me. And as a parent I should be able to guide my DCs to make the right choice for themselves not for the ‘greater good’. Would any of you really be ok if your child ended up with a heart condition from the vaccine because it meant that someone else got to visit their grandma?