Getting the jab ....

[TheOstrich]

It seems that because child vaccination rates have fallen so much recently, the UK no longer has a WHO or whatever measles-free status. So the Health Minister is proposing that children MUST have had the jabs before being allowed to start school. Some commentators think that's a good idea, others say that by making it a "law" it will annoy parents by taking away their choice. Would you agree jabs should be compulsory?

I'm no devotee of Andrew Wakefield but I don't think it can be said that jabs are completely risk-free. I was surprised however to see that by the time they're 5, it's recommended children should have had at least a dozen jabs for various things. Do you think all these are necessary?

In my day, it was just the oral polio vaccine on a sugar cube, as far as I can remember. And yes, we used to have measles and rubella "parties" on the grounds that it's better to catch these things whilst you're young (I never did, though!) but, in a way, that was only the 1950's method of today's inoculations, I guess.

[Workingman]

I remember being inoculated against polio, TB, smallpox and diphtheria at infant school in the late 1950s, but I guess the exact jabs were largely down to each Regional Health Authority. We also had the measles, German measles (rubella) mumps and chicken pox 'parties' but with varying degrees of 'success'. I think the belief was that if you caught one you were then immune, and if you didn't you were probably resistant anyway and didn't need a vaccine.

It's a tough call for the Health Sec, but with the anti-vaxxer movement being so strong maybe it is thought necessary.

[meriad]

I was following another debate on this and someone made a very valid comment.... they were saying that there are many children who for whatever reasons cannot be vaccinated; and they're put at risk because people that can and should vaccinate their children don't.

So whilst yes it does appear to be big brother I do very much believe that the benefits of vaccinating far far far outweigh any possible negative side effects and I'd agree with making it compulsory

[cromwell]

A dozen jabs seems a bit strong. I do remember as a child having measles.
It's a difficult question. On the one hand it's for your own good etc, on the other the state thinking it has the absolute right to tell you that you MUST have a jab? Maybe not so good.
As a brief aside Kevin the plumber who does all our stuff had the flu jab two years ago and it put him in bed for two days; he said he'd never felt so ill!

[medsec222]

This is a difficult one. I do agree that children should be vaccinated. Several years ago when there was a lot of confusion about whether or not the triple vaccination could cause autism, the rate of uptake of vaccination dropped off quite considerably. There was some debate as to whether the three vaccinations together could have caused autism in some children. I thought that this was a fair point, but in the end it was discounted and the triple vaccination still continues as far as I am aware.

[meriad]

This is a difficult one. I do agree that children should be vaccinated. Several years ago when there was a lot of confusion about whether or not the triple vaccination could cause autism, the rate of uptake of vaccination dropped off quite considerably. There was some debate as to whether the three vaccinations together could have caused autism in some children. I thought that this was a fair point, but in the end it was discounted and the triple vaccination still continues as far as I am aware.

It definitely does continue .

My sister-in-law is a nurse and years back when the triple vs single vaccine debate was at its peak she worked with a GP who figured this was a money maker and offered (privately) to do the single vaccines, at no small cost let me tell you. And then the proverbial hit the fan - there not being enough stock was bad enough because so many people were jumping on the band wagon but parents either didn't come back in time for the booster or didn't come back at all, or they only did one or two of the three. And as it was done privately you couldn't force them. As a result there are a lot of kids out there who think they may be vaccinated but in fact aren't!

[Workingman]

My two were born 18 months either side of the introduction of the mmr vaccine.

Michael had separate jabs for the initial and the boosters and there were no problems or costs involved. That is just how things were.

With Becky the the scare stories were out there so we had to think long and hard. In the end we went for the combined mmr jab route because, despite the hype, the evidence and the numbers were just not there for the autism scare.

On balance I am for compulsion for some jabs, but with mmr there has to be choice just to calm nerves and keep rates up.

[miasmum]

https://www.northantstelegraph.co.uk/ne ... wk_guDyzSM

This is about 10 miles away from me

[Suff]

I have a slightly different story on this one.

My daughter lived next door to a couple with 3 boys. All had the MMR. All were the same when they had the jab, but one of them, two days after, had a massively altered temperament. Eventually he was diagnosed with Autism, yet there had been absolutely no sign of it before. It was like a switch had been flipped.

My daughter, who had been there and seen the whole thing, was absolutely adamant that neither of her children were getting MMR. EVER.

As you can imagine she was put through hell by the medial services. Told she was imagining things, constantly hassled, told she'd be reported for failing her children (she was a single parent at this time).

Eventually I got involved. Threaten to take away my Grandchildren and I'm not going to stand by for one second.

After a few weeks of research I stumbled across a medial research paper that had cross referenced the incidences of Crones disease with MMR. It turned out that if your family has a history of Crones, you run a 20% greater risk of getting Crones if you do have MMR than if you don't.

As it turns out, my family (on my mothers side), does have a history of Crones. Quite nasty really and all well medically documented. "Our family has a history of Crones" she said. "What do you want to do now".

What did they do? They shut up and went away and never mentioned it again to my Daughter. My Grandchildren have never had MMR. But my Granddaughter has had Rubella as it is important. It is not required for a boy at all.

You like that? A 20% greater chance of a life debilitating illness and they know it and they ignore it. For the greater good you know.

If you do a bit of personal digging, you will find that MMR induces, in some children, a 5% chance of microseizures in the middle of the night. The quad is up to 10%.

You can say anything you want about the rights and wrongs of MMR, whether it is "believed" to be good or bad. My daughter will simply look at you as if you are mad. She watched it with her own eyes. What mother, after that experience, would put her own children into that lottery?

Measles? Had it. Mumps? Had it. Whooping cough? Had it. I've had Mosquito borne Jaundice too. I'm just trying to work out how they justify Crones against the extremely small chance of a fatality with Measles. 4 of my 5 cousins, on my Mothers side, have all developed Crones, even though two of them have a father who never developed it. All 5 had MMR. My brother and I were born before MMR, neither of us has the slightest sign of Crones, but we both have the other family "ailments" between us.

Make these vaccinations law? I'd leave the country first if it were my children!

[miasmum]

Two sides to every story Suff. My friend has a very seriously disabled sister, caused by her mum contracting rubella while pregnant. Tim's uncle and aunty endured years of fertility treatment, possibly caused by him contracting mumps as a child, they finally adopted a daughter. When Luke was having his first round of neurosurgery there was a little girl having neurosurgery, as her seizures started when she developed encephalitis from measles.