MMR - another US case

[saintlydamemrsturnip]

news report here

thank you for highlighting that, MrsT

yes, thanks - yet another reason for my family not to have the MMR.

DD1 has her preschool booster next week.

this place is a hotbed of anti vaccination 'thinking' isn't it?

look up the complications and prevalence of measles, mumps and rubella. then look up the complications and prevalence of reactions to vaccines, and i mean from real sources like pubmed, not conspiracy theorist websites. compare the two. you will find that the way to put your child at risk of brain damage, blindness, infertility and death is overwhelmingly to not vaccinate.

for your child's sake, get them vaccinated. measles is a nasty, nasty disease. children die from it.

I waited until my son was 6 to have the MMR - he had a reaction 5 days later and had a day off school and so I felt vindicated waiting. Admittedly, had he had measles he would have had had a lot more time off school! If you are in a dilemma about it, there is a Neals Yard Remedis booklet which is very good, though somewhat out of date now. Remember though that although Wakefield has been discredited, people were concerned about the MMR vaccine a long time before he came along.

And remember there is a Vaccine Damages Act, which indicates vaccines can cause problems. It's up to each parent to decide for themselves and weigh up the pros and cons. I know some children can't be vaccinated, but I do what I think is best for my child, and I don't care if people think I am selfish. Nobody would help me if I were the one with the vaccine-damaged child.

The government wants children to be vaccinated for economic reasons, not health reasons. It's cheaper to vaccinate a child than treat them for the illness. And it's cheaper for parents to be in work than for them to be at home nursing a sick child. The government doesn't want you to vaccinate your child for your child's benefit. So do what you think is best, not what you are told.

and, riven, what are the rates of complications from mmr?

lower than those from measles. and i see people every week who have lost sight from measles, so don't think it's a mild disease. and remember, it might be your child who gives the disease to that unfortunate one that dies.

immunise. it's the only sane way.

all this conspiracy theory stuff is rubbish. it's your child's health you are putting at risk.

and i'm glad you mentioned niel's yard. you might want to take a look at the guardian website today and see if you still think their advice is really worth taking.

don't be a victim of the anti vaccination movement. think and research for yourself.

mso - you need to be a bit more careful who you're talking to before you get so hot under the collar. Some people here have had children who have been vaccine damaged. PLease be a bit more considerate of that.

no-one is denying that there are some rare complications associated with vaccines. however, those complications do not include autism and are usually mild. encouraging others to forgo vaccination is not a good idea, purely on the basis that by doing so they are encouraging others to expose their children to the much greater risk of these childhood diseases.

equally, there are many (many, many more) whose children have been damaged by the diseases we vaccinate against. the anti vax crowd don't extend the same courtesy you are asking to those parents, even though they directly contribute to the transmission of disease to vulnerable children who cannot be vaccinated.

the myth that mmr causes autism, that measles is a mild disease, that there is some kind of financial motivation to vaccination, that there are chemicals in vaccines at harmful levels is all nonsensical propaganda peddled by an anti vaccination movement and do not stand up to scrutiny. and these myths mean that children that would otherwise be healthy get sick and sometimes die.

so yes, I get hot under the collar about this in the hope that it will encourage some people to think twice about needlessly exposing their children to lethal diseases. Vaccine damage is a terrible thing but it is very rare. disease is only rare because of immunisation.

yes, I am a research scientist, since you ask. Are you?

Anti vaccine here. Would consider seperate ones I think, but all this 'job lotting' cannot be good for a child.

thanks for posting that.

brief info about UK vaccine damage compensation scheme:-
www.direct.gov.uk/en/DisabledPeople/FinancialSupport/OtherBenefitsAndSupport/DG_10026664

mso - of course there are financial interests in vaccination, the drug companies don't give them to the NHS for free do they .

DS got measles despite having had first MMR. The disease itself was very mild - it may have made him more prone to tummy bugs for 4 months afterwards though (or could be sheer coincidence).

I didn't say I was an immunologist, just that I am a research scientist. And hence have to evaluate evidence and read papers on a regular basis. Oh, and have access to the full text of said papers through Athens. After having my first I researched the issue of vaccination quite thoroughly and concluded that the path of least risk to my childs health was to vaccinate.

As to why there is an anti vaccination movement, I am constantly bewildered by the range of things people will believe without any evidence. Why do Scientology or homeopathy exist?

The evidence is all out there, for anyone to read. You just have to look at the credible sources, not jim carrey. www.tripdatabase.com is a good source of evidence based reserarch.

"After having my first I researched the issue of vaccination quite thoroughly and concluded that the path of least risk to my childs health was to vaccinate.". Yes. And others have done the same and have concluded that there are greater risks to their child's health in vaccinating. Not because they are relying on Jim Carrey for advice.

I'm a research scientist too (in autism). I have come to different conclusions to mso (from reading papers and attending conferences).

Which isn't to say that vaccine damage leading to autism is common. But there's a difference between not common and never. And of course the risk to each individual is not identical.

there aren't many people I've come across on here who "encourage others to forgo vaccination"

what people do (me included) is tell their stories - what other people decide to do with that information is up to them.

regarding the vacination programme we currently have in this country - I would have a lot more time for it if just one doctor would listent o my concerns, talk to me about it, give me a few facts, and let me come to a reasonable conclusion.

I do not like being told I am neurotic, hysterical, or that I will not understand the information that I could be given (all of which have happened)

I do not like havign my daughter's condition (she has some mitochondrial dysfunction) dismissed because "well, she's not ill at the moment is she? so no reason to not vaccinate" (along with dismissing the test results (and this was the second re-test because the paed refused to believe the results the first 2 times) because it didn't fit what he wanted to believe). He couldn't understand why dd2 was not serioulsy ill with the results she had, so of course the natural thing to do is just ignore the results

of course I will take advice from him