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India Knight on MMR

71 replies

foundintranslation · 25/06/2006 09:16

in the Sunday Times

ds (13mo) is having single measles next week. It took us a while to make the decision against MMR for our particular case and I really resent being told I am selfish and imbecilic.

Rant over.

OP posts:
Caligula · 25/06/2006 11:28

Case of the pot realising it's a kettle in disguise.

Silly old bat. (India Knight that is)

The good thing about her, is that you generally don't have to tax your brain thinking of good intellectually demanding rejoinders to her silly nonsense. Silly old bat will do. She's too absurd.

Socci · 25/06/2006 11:31

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motherinferior · 25/06/2006 11:35

I made the choice for MMR, but it still annoys me. What with being India Knight and all.

fattiemumma · 25/06/2006 11:43

my son is Autistic.
I also have a nephew ( now 16) who has AS and his mother believes with every inch of her body that it was, if not caused by, compounded by the MMR jab. this was many years before the report that has caused such discussion.

at the age when he was due to be given the MMR we alreay had strong suspicions that things were not exactly "right" with him. so after immense amounts of research and carefull consideration i decided NOT to give him the jab.
i looked into having the single jabs but, when we made the appointment it all came out that some places werent even giving the correct jab! so we didnt bother.

i take great offense to being told i am imbecilic becasue i value my childs long term wellbeing. There was a doubt in my mind over the health concerns of the MMR and as we already had worries i did not wish to put my child at any further risk.

how dare she!

all these people so quick judge those of us who choose not to have the MMR shoudl take a trip to a AUTISTIC day centre. just look at how debilitating autism can be and then ask yourself is it worth the risk??

if Ms Knicht wishes to bang a soap box to anyone it shoudl be to the Secretary of health demanding fr the introduction of single vaccinations.

why put millions of children at risk for the sake of bloody mindedness?
by introducing the single vaccines you will be easing the minds of millions of parents, the rate of immunity will shoot up and all will be happy.

I do agree with expat in as much as if we are vaccinating as babies why is this not boosted at teenage?

fattiemumma · 25/06/2006 11:44

mind you is this the same journo that wrote the article saying that parents wer making out their children had autism just s we could cash in on DLA?

Socci · 25/06/2006 11:52

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Socci · 25/06/2006 11:57

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LaDiDaDi · 25/06/2006 13:09

I didn't like the tone of the article, lots of sweeping statements etc and lol that she was goingto do the same thing that she criticises others for doing but Socci "blindly accepted the advice of her daughter's consultant"??? What else is IK to do? Ignore the advice of consultant paediatric immunologist who is expert in her daughter's condition (DiGeorge syndrome) and knows her daughter's specific circumstances? I can't think of anyone's advice that I would rather take in her circumstances.

Socci · 25/06/2006 13:46

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Jimjamskeepingoffvaxthreads · 25/06/2006 13:50

she's wrong anyway- the outbreak in Japan was associated with problem with the MMR strain they were giving (it caused meningitis) and so paretns refused to give MMR. Monovalents were reintroduced because of this parental refusal after the outbreak and the deaths.

foundintranslation · 25/06/2006 13:54

Hysterical's the right word isn't it? Venomous is another that springs to mind. Blimming hell, I haven't enjoyed worrying, dithering and wondering about the MMR, it's not a 'lifestyle choice' like my organic veg box, it's a real concern that although the MMR does appear to be safe for most children, ds has some risk factors which could make him unlucky and not wanting to expose him to that - but not to measles either. 'Lemming-like decision' my a*se.
Shouldn't be rising to it though, should I?

OP posts:
Socci · 25/06/2006 13:59

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drosophila · 25/06/2006 14:08

Very irritating article. My DS didn't have MMR (he has several very serious allergies) and he did develop measles. It was not a breeze and I would reccomend anyone vac their child cos it is a horrible illness (or can be) but how you vacinate is not important. My DD is about to have singles mainly cos of our family history (seeral reactions to Vac and history of autoimmune disease) and I don't feel guilty cos I am about to vaccinate. DS still not vacinated against Mumps and having had real measles should not be given MMR but NHS will not coperate. Doc will not give him singles as he is allergic to egg and it should be done in Hosp.

ladyoracle · 25/06/2006 14:19

quote They base their lemming-like decisions on nursery-gate gossip and half-understood hearsay, rather than on a single iota of hard evidence.

No Ms Knight,I based my decision not to vaccinate on many many days of research, and painful personal experience, though not as painful as it was for dd1.

How dare she, I'm fuming.

apsmum · 25/06/2006 14:37

My ds has had the seperate jabs. I wouldnt dream of innoculating my precious and only with a vaccine whose safety is a matter of public debate. As for India Knight's article, I am yet to read an article by her that dosent sound hysterical. I read her article every Sunday for pure amusement, given her holier than thou attitude with regard to allmost all areas of life .

juuule · 25/06/2006 14:41

Beginning to think that's India Knight's job spec - Write articles to wind people up.

ilovecaboose · 25/06/2006 18:17

There seems to be a lot of these articles about at the moment - I'm just wondering if the government or a drs association has asked them to as they seem to be in the majority of newspapers. Whether certain newspapers have been asked to publish this kind of thing? Just a theory. Could have been better worded though. Why put the back up of people whose minds your trying to change? Wouldn't it have been better to find some evidence and quotes from drs and medics supporting it and put those into a well written balanced article? Surely it would have had more effect than the diatribe?

Caligula · 25/06/2006 18:28

D'you think she gets paid according to how many outraged letters she gets back?

FairyMum · 25/06/2006 18:31

Here we go again. It's all a huge conspiracy. It doesn't matter how many quotes from medical professionals or evidence you present.No wonder columnists like India feel like a rant now and again. I certainly do!

ilovecaboose · 25/06/2006 19:22

I don't mean I think its a conspiracy (though I didn't put it very well), its just that so many health professionals are worried I'm wondering whether they asked the newspapers whether they could write about it.

By the way I did give my ds MMR and am convinced that was the right thing to do.

Tortington · 25/06/2006 19:43

why does anyone ever read anything she writes?

shes a complete fuckwit and cant write for fuck IMO.

btw - i agree with her. but still think shes a twat

Socci · 25/06/2006 21:37

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Jimjamskeepingoffvaxthreads · 25/06/2006 21:57

I think its more that the whole truth isn't really considered. Thimerosal has been in jabs for years and years so no-one really considered that changing the dosing schedule/amount would have much of an effect, or that the role of thimerosal in combination with eating mercury laden fish might suddenly become more important. And for most people of course it doesn't have much of an effect. A hereditary inability to detoxify heavy metals very effectively only has an effect when there are toxic metals in the environment. It's the reason autistic children have previously been described as caged canaries and our early warning system.

LeahE · 25/06/2006 22:33

Leah what were the circumstances of your friend's child dying of chickenpox, if you don't mind me asking? I've never heard of a child dying of it until now. Did the child have any other special health circumstances?

It was encephalitis, which is listed as one of the rare complications. It came on very suddenly he had what seemed like "normal" chickenpox, then collapsed at the breakfast table and was dead by the time they got him to hospital or at least, I'm not entirely sure whether he was dead on arrival or just that he never regained consciousness. He was a perfectly normal toddler in every way. A colleague of DH's also had a son who was on life support for a while with chicken-pox-related encephalitis, although luckily he pulled through. It is rare, so there's no rational reason to be paranoid about childhood chicken pox -- although of course I am now.

expatinscotland · 25/06/2006 22:37

my GP couldn't even correctly identify the five diseases the 5 in 1 offers protection against. he wrote 'diptheria, pertussis, polio, tetanus, haemophilus and type B influenza'. but i'm supposed to trust nuggets like this w/my kid's life and health?

what a crock!