Radio 4's Today programme want your views on compulsory vaccinations

[HelenMumsnet]

Hello.

The Today programme are very keen to hear what Mumsnetters think about making childhood vaccinations compulsory.

Should children not be allowed to start school until they've had all their jabs - therefore protecting the rest of the school community - as some experts at the British Medical Association are proposing?

Or does the idea of compulsory childhood vaccinations make you blood boil?

It has. IIRC, most of the tribes in the Amazon were wiped out from colds etc that tourists took with them.

My point is, how are you going to make sure every child at school is immunised if there are children in that school who are from countries with an alternative vaccination programme? Are they all to be immunised before joining the school? If it's a blanket policy then how's it going to work? What about children with allergies to the ingredients of specific vaccines? They will not be protected either. Will they too not be able to start school?

well I am the ultimate dullard as I am just Gp compliant, they say " go and have the jabs"
so I go

Sister was on phone " what jabs is he having"

me " i have no idea - whatever you have at 3 months"

her " you dont KNOW"

me "no"

mind you they get you when you are SO sleep deprived that resistance is futile.

(btw i dont know anyone in rl who hasnt had them - think its a MN "thing" and in rl most people have them)

And actually, we all pay an awful lot of tax for our education system.

It's not free and it's not any medical association to decide who can and cannot go.

I think vaccination is a wonderful invention resulting in decreased death rates from terrible diseases such as measles and whooping cough.

I figure, if modern science has worked out ways for us to get on with our lives with less illness, pain and suffering, you might as well go for it.

Why put your child (and other people's children) at risk of some terrible infection when there is an easy way to prevent it? And little good evidence that vaccinations can cause harm?

Oh, and I also think that we should improve the standard of science education so that when our children grow up they can appreciate these issues better when the time comes to get their own children vaccinated.

Yuck. No.
I am pro-vaccination and didn't hesitate to vaccinate my children. I wrinkle my brow when I hear others haven't had the MMR or single jars instead. HOWEVER they certainly have the right to opt out in my view.
I'm even quite a fan of big government but not when it means little people being wrestled out of their sobbing parent's arms so some administrator can tick a box.
Liberty. Equality. Fraternity.

Yes - measles can be dangerous and immunization is sensible in my view. But if the NHS/ government can't convince people of that with intelligently produced information then that's no excuse just to start being a bloody bully. Instead of rolling out a massive programme of compulsory vaccs put a bit more effort into convincing people and producing decent literature and education on the subject.

If it was compulsory I think you'd see Scandinavia developing some rather large British ex-pat communities.

single jabs not jars!

Not compulsory.

Obviously there are some cases where there are (or are likely to be) complications. Such children should not be vaccinated. Its all the more important that the rest of the 'herd' is.

Perhaps the parents who refuse the vaccinations should first be sent some good information and then if they still aren't convinced, be called in for counselling to try to ensure they are making a properly informed choice on behalf of their - and other - children.

I am also pro-vaccination, but I do not agree with making it compulsory. Forcing people to have it doen will get even more people's backs up.
Tbh, I think the government should have allowed people the option of singles, despite the shortcomings. I am confident that MMR is safe and I do roll my eyes (to myself) when I hear a friend say she hasn't had her child immunised, but any kind of action which can be seen as coersive does the immunisation cause no favours and makes it look to some that there is something to hide.

I am a passionate advocate of vaccination. But we live in what is supposed to be a free country and I would be appalled at this proposal.

As the Cochrane report [the govt's own inqiry into MMR safety] concluded research into MMR safety, both for and against, was 'woefully inadequate' it seems a very unethical and bullying tactic to force children to be immunized with MMR before they can go to school. And as no doctor on the face of the UK will risk his career by officially confirming a child should not have the MMR on medical grounds, it seems that all children would really mean all children, again, unethical. If children can only be admitted to school if they have had MMR or singles, then lets hope Merck re start production of the mumps vaccine.

Of course as vaccination does not necessarily mean life long immunity, if this were to be enforced one would have to be routinely testing all adults that have any access to children to ensure their immunity status too. But I'm sure that hypocrisy won't stand in their way.

So much for Tony Blair's much vaunted Third Way and Parental Choice. It's "Do what we say" all the way.

I guess Frank Zappa was right: whoever you vote for the Government gets in.

ROFL re only those who don't understand science being wary of MMR. I trust you have never been in a conversation with a certain biochemist on MN who clearly knows her stuff...

Not compulsory, no.

I would be dead against taking away the choice. More info is what we need, in order to make an informed decision, not coercion.

if only the govt were more honest about the situation, and instead of demonizing Wakefield, allowed more research into the issue [no scientist wants to broach it in the UK at present after what happened to Wakefield]. Even those who propose MMR may be risky for a small number of children agree it is safe for the majority. But what a way to let down a small number of children who may be susceptible, by forcing all children to be immunized to protect public health, knowing that it is impossible at present to prove that MMR has been the causative agent in damaging certain children. The government know that culpability is impossible to prove, which is why they are so carefree in their approach to the subject.

My son regressed after his MMR and no one - no one - has been able to give an explaination as to what happened to him or why he also suddenly developed gut problems and food intolerances.

Whether people believe me to me barmy or misguided, having had one child affected so severely is there seriously anyone out there who believes that it is reasonable for me to be forced to vaccinate my NT DD.

Or , having been given no compensation and little support, am I now to be excluded from services in an attempt to blackmail and bully me.

I just about cope with Liam Donalson and various government spokesmen being trotted out to use language which calls me stupid and then blames me for every bout of measles. But when they choose to refuse single jabs, refuse to investigate my sons regression and then try this kind of blackmail, I start to loose any faith in the concept of compassion within the BMA and the medical fraternity.

i think they should be compulsory. there are dangers i know this but the dangers for the rest of the population for the un vaccinated are much bigger. therefore given you dont know in advance whether your child will be the small percentage of those where problems occur i dont see why people shouldnt have to have them done. but that will never happen in the UK i am sure.

Helenmumsnet

If you are conveying my feelings could you please stand with one hand on one hip and wag your finger with the other. You will need to hurumph and roll your eyes a lot. You might cry a little but I tend to only do that in private when the fuckwits people shrugging their shoulders at what happened to my boy gets too much. You, I am sure, will not give in to such wasteful emotions.
The good news is that once you are done you can have a big drink.

Thank you in advance

'the concept of compassion within the BMA and the medical fraternity'

Given the general attitude of the BMA that mothers are all pretty stupid and children must be protected from them I think the concept of compassion is indeed, er, slightly lost.

It's a difficult one, isn't it. In my professional life I have seen a little boy die from measles encephalitis which colours my views. Somehow we have to get the UK population to have herd immunity. These are deathly diseases. But I am not completely sure that compulsory immunisations are the way to go about it. I wish I knew what the answer is, though.

I disagree with that being the view of the BMA as a whole.

'these are deathly diseases'
Measles is potentially deadly. Mumps and rubella are not. Rubella of course is potentially seriously harmful to the fetus which is why adolescent girls should receive a booster.

Measles being potentially so serious does not mean however that research into vaccine safety should be curtailed.

I agree with what lulu said.

Threatening, bullying tactics, a trusted government does not make.

I would stand up and applaud a decision to introduce some transparency into vaccination in this country.

As a starting point I would like them to start publishing statistics that include children who have had single jabs because we're starting this furore with soundbites based on misleading statistics. I would also like each radio and televesion progamme and newspaper article to acknowledge a lack of proper research and stop with the 'Wakefield's research was discredited'. A little honesty please.

They won't bring in compulsory vaccinations but in the unlikely event that they did, I'd be swimming the channel in my efforts to get away.

And if I don't get very far and am sent back, I'll have a percentage of my taxes back seeing as dd's education will be denied to her.

[mouthlikecatsbum]

I think if the government want the burgeoning home education movement to grow even faster and bigger than it is currently, introducing compulsory vaccination is an excellent way of doing that.