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Measles Epidemic
Am I alone in being amazed at the scale of the recent measles epidemic ? Its occurred here in my home town of Swansea, and there appears to be 1000's of children who have been immunised, with 100,000's others around the UK.
Why have the parents not made sure that their kids are properly protected ? The original fuss over the MMR jabs is now a long time ago, having occurred in 1998, and the false reporting has been thoroughly dealt with. So why are the parents of babies born NOW not receiving their jabs ? I would have thought that Doctors, Health Visitors, etc would have been doing their jobs these last few years.
The BBC report today that 1 million kids are going to be targeted in a new campaign ::
http://
That sounds like a huge number to me !
Why have the parents not made sure that their kids are properly protected ? The original fuss over the MMR jabs is now a long time ago, having occurred in 1998, and the false reporting has been thoroughly dealt with. So why are the parents of babies born NOW not receiving their jabs ? I would have thought that Doctors, Health Visitors, etc would have been doing their jobs these last few years.
The BBC report today that 1 million kids are going to be targeted in a new campaign ::
http://
That sounds like a huge number to me !
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"Vaccination rates have since recovered to record levels. It suggests measles will be confined to the Wakefield generation and not be a long-term problem"
It's mainly 10-16 year olds who are now at risk - hard work by the NHS means that (apart from some small ethnic and religious groupings) MMR rates for babies are back into the high 90%-95% range which will restore "herd immunity" as those new generations feed through.
It's mainly 10-16 year olds who are now at risk - hard work by the NHS means that (apart from some small ethnic and religious groupings) MMR rates for babies are back into the high 90%-95% range which will restore "herd immunity" as those new generations feed through.
Mikey4444
Please see this timeline.
http://
The Daily Mail campaign again the jab started in 2001 and was only fully discreditted in 2010. But people still believe there is a danger. The Government have been campaigning to get parents to immunise theor children, but all those years of bad information in the papers have sowed a seed of doubt. It is only now, when people are dying, that parents are taking notice again.
Please see this timeline.
http://
The Daily Mail campaign again the jab started in 2001 and was only fully discreditted in 2010. But people still believe there is a danger. The Government have been campaigning to get parents to immunise theor children, but all those years of bad information in the papers have sowed a seed of doubt. It is only now, when people are dying, that parents are taking notice again.
It's amazing how muck sticks isn't it? The original, long since discredited, reports that MMR could give children autism has ensured that many, many children have not had vaccinations which could save their lives. I made sure that my children, now 18 and 21 both had the MMR as I was very ill when I had measles as a child. But the eldest got measles from the vaccination and the younger one was diagnosed with mumps about 8 or 9 years ago. I couldn't believe it, but the doctor told me that the MMR doesn't work 100 per cent. So, there is always the possibility that your child could get one of this diseases, even having had the MMR, but surely you should give your child the best chance? I think one problem though is that because there haven't been many outbreaks of these diseases in the last few years that parents have no idea how dangerous they are. Hopefully this is a wake-up call.
// the false reporting has been thoroughly dealt with. //
Not sure it has. Wakefield has been discredited, but the papers that backed him have not really accepted they were wrong or retracted what they wrote. And they certainly didn't give the Lancets admission that Wakefield's paper was flawed, the same amount of space as the original scare. So the public were not proper assured that the jab was safe, hence they failed to to get their kids immunised.
Not sure it has. Wakefield has been discredited, but the papers that backed him have not really accepted they were wrong or retracted what they wrote. And they certainly didn't give the Lancets admission that Wakefield's paper was flawed, the same amount of space as the original scare. So the public were not proper assured that the jab was safe, hence they failed to to get their kids immunised.
I agree it is madness that kids are not being vaccinated after the original story was debunked.
However, I think also that some of this is a backlash on the press. Something we all agree on here is that sometimes the papers can "exagerate" stories and also there is the "there is no smoke without fire" angle.
Many peole probably thought well what if there is something else going on that we aren't told about? Not let's go to the doctor and rationally discuss my fears.
I had a friend, a sensible lady with very grounded parenting skills, but she almost didn't get her two done with the MMR because of the story. In the end I said she really should get them done and she had them seperately but she wasn't going to do it!
I feel the press ought to take some blame here too.
However, I think also that some of this is a backlash on the press. Something we all agree on here is that sometimes the papers can "exagerate" stories and also there is the "there is no smoke without fire" angle.
Many peole probably thought well what if there is something else going on that we aren't told about? Not let's go to the doctor and rationally discuss my fears.
I had a friend, a sensible lady with very grounded parenting skills, but she almost didn't get her two done with the MMR because of the story. In the end I said she really should get them done and she had them seperately but she wasn't going to do it!
I feel the press ought to take some blame here too.
There is also an undercurrent of "were not being told the truth", which is plainly wrong.
In a lot of countries around the world there are "anti- Vaccination" movements. The US one is led by Jenny McCarthy.
This is the true legacy of Wakefield, there are always people who want to believe the worst. A woman I worked with had her children vaccinated with individual shots for each disease, it cost a fortune that she couln't afford.
Also those who backed the discredited research haven't exactly been admitting it.
In a lot of countries around the world there are "anti- Vaccination" movements. The US one is led by Jenny McCarthy.
This is the true legacy of Wakefield, there are always people who want to believe the worst. A woman I worked with had her children vaccinated with individual shots for each disease, it cost a fortune that she couln't afford.
Also those who backed the discredited research haven't exactly been admitting it.
I agree that people have been misled and confused by sloppy reporting in the press, but when your family Doctor says get the jabs done, then most people would believe him wouldn't they ?
Of course, most kids DID their jabs and we are now dealing with the minority who didn't but it is very worrying that so many people took notice of newspapers rather than a fully qualified medical professional.
On a related subject, does anybody know what the situation is with polio ?
When I was boy, growing up in the 50's, there was always at least one child in every school who had to wear one of those awful leg irons, which I haven't seen for many years now.
Of course, most kids DID their jabs and we are now dealing with the minority who didn't but it is very worrying that so many people took notice of newspapers rather than a fully qualified medical professional.
On a related subject, does anybody know what the situation is with polio ?
When I was boy, growing up in the 50's, there was always at least one child in every school who had to wear one of those awful leg irons, which I haven't seen for many years now.
mikey4444
The Daily Mail were still doing the MMR link to autism scare less than a year ago. No wonder parents are confused.
http://
The Daily Mail were still doing the MMR link to autism scare less than a year ago. No wonder parents are confused.
http://
Polio is almost beaten, confined now mainly to some places in Africa and and the middle-East. Unfortunately some radical Islamic/ other local sects are spreading the story that the vaccine is some Western conspiracy or other. Damaging the men's virility, perhaps, or some equal rubbish. It should have been the third disease we eradicated for good, after smallpox and rinderpest. No such luck, sadly.
people who don't immunise their kids are stupid on 2 levels: first the risk of measles itself (and it is very unpleasant to have - and is, of course, deadly in some cases): and secondly, those without vaccines help to spread it in epidemics such as this. it just goes to show how many parents have just not thought about this issue properly - and did not do any research into measles, mmr or the real 'risk' of autism. as a parent, i find it astounding that people just don't think about the way they are parenting - not only in the moment, but what happens later down the line.
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