GP’s manner over babies vaccines

[SLiath]

I just had a voicemail from a woman at my GP’s practice. The only way to describe her tone is condescending. She asked if I had a chance to speak with “hubby” about getting immunisations for my two twins. I am a single mother. I had the first round which made them very poorly and declined the second for the time being I was concerned for their health. They were born premature and we spent 5 weeks in NICU so didn’t want anything impacting their feeding. She then stated with a very snarky tone that if I was not having them immunised I need to go to the practice to sign a form because the “child health surveillance team keeps emailing her.” I have had some hesitance to get the vaccines due to some mistrust in the NHS. This voicemail has now increased that trust. Has anyone had a similar experience?

100 years ago a typical working class family in a developed country had one adult spending their whole day cleaning

Hah, not my working class family. Everyone over the age of 12 worked sixty plus hours a week.

House cleaning isn’t a proxy for sanitation.

By the 1890s, flushing toilets were widespread and the first sewage treatment plant was built in 1865.

Nope. Back in the 1860s, toilets were extremely rare and households having their own water supply was even rarer. While cities like Liverpool had near-complete provision of WCs in homes by the 1890s, many industrial northern towns still relied on outdoor privies, with only 7.5 per cent of households having toilets in 1906 in towns like Rochdale. Even fifty years ago, in the 1967 House Conditions Survey found that 25 percent of homes in England and Wales still lacked a bath or shower, an indoor toilet, a sink and hot and cold water taps.

Many people still living recall shared outdoor toilets that served several houses/20+ people per toilet in some slum areas.

And that’s in England, a developed country, how do you think the rest of the less developed world was?

One sewage plant in 1865 doesn’t mean sanitation was good or widespread. China didn’t have any until the 1980s.

I think this is a really sensible point.

Society has made the choice to sacrifice the health of people like you and your DS than risk a measles (or polio etc) outbreak. Realistically, you could probably argue that is the right choice for society as measles and polio are contagious and deadly whereas presumably your disability is not. However, this approach is obviously brutally unfair on individuals like you who have your lives forever altered and it leads to a lot of dishonesty and politicisation when it comes to discussions are vaccinations. Risks are downplayed which is unforgivable imo especially when some people may have a specific reason to be worried (eg a past medical history of adverse reactions or pre-existing health conditions which could be exacerbated). Sufferers of adverse events are then gaslighted. Those who are vaccine-sceptic, perhaps due to a family history of adverse events, are vilified and called conspiracy theorists.

The way the Covid vaccination program was approached has also done this issue no favours, as more and more people are saying they have long term problems from the vaccine despite being assured at the time that it was safe for them. Sadly, the politicisation of the discourse around vaccines reduced transparency and left little room for nuance.

An outdoor toilet is still good sanitation isn't it? It might not be the most convenient.

"House cleaning isn't a proxy for good sanitation." What? Keeping your home and person spotlessly clean is a huge part of good sanitation. There's nothing inherently unclean about an outdoor toilet. Clean water is vital, but laws mandating the supply of clean running water to all new homes came in in 1875, so whilst not everyone would have lived in a new home it's fair to say that by 1924, many households would be covered.