What are YOUR opinions on the UK MMR controversy?

Question

In need of YOUR opinions on the UK MMR controversy for University report!

I am a second year student at the University of Glamorgan, Wales, UK. I am currently writing a report on the UK's MMR controversy which began in 1998. Whilst many undertones of the controversy have been resolved, controversial myths still remain. Many believe that the single 'combined' vaccine has led to cases of autism in young children, whilst others stand firm in the belief that the controversy was a case of public paranoia, often hyped by the media. The public play a crucial part in determining the way forward with our children's health. I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR WHAT THE GENERAL PUBLIC THINK! Please send me your opinions on the MMR controversy, wherever you stand on the issue, and if used in my report, all will remain anonymous and confidential (unless of course you would like me to credit you!) Thank you for your contribution and your time to answer this question.

Answer 1

People who do not immunise their children are selfish,there is another outbreak of german measles at playschool so all the pregnant women are having to have blood tests all because the child's parents did not have her done.

Answer 2

This may not help your report as I am from the US, but I do work with special needs children ( autistic, cerebral palsy, TBI, etc). I am no expert by far. But what I DO know is that the many many parents of autistic children had perfectly healthy children until thier child recieved the MMR. I'm not saying that all autistc children were okay until the vaccination, but many were. Some were born with autism, ( some had food poisoning while they were pregnant ). Some parents have no idea. Some say their child recieved the vaccination and became very ill the same evening and everything they had learned was gone. I'm also told that boys are more likely to develop autism because of the testosterone.
I hope I helped.


Also--many parents that don't get the vaccination claim you don't see measles, mumps, or rubella anymore so where would the child catch it from?

Answer 3

My little boy is three years old, and it kept me awake at night not knowing what to do when he was old enough to have the MMR, in the end I took two pharmacists advice and gave it to him. I did think strongly about going to a private clinic and having it the done individually but its expensive to do and myself and my partner, dont actually earn much money. Not that I would have put a price on having a healthy child.
Tony Blair would never say if he let his son have it or not which is enough to put doubt into anyones mind. But then again, its cheaper for the government to give it combined but in the long run, if there is a high chance of autism, then its going to be more expensive as the child with autism will need special schooling, and treatment and care for the rest of their life, depending on how severe the autism actually is. I just hope that they dont think its cheaper to pay for the care for a few people who develop autism from MMR than it is to give it individually.
As for the lady who commented about how someone didnt give it to their child and now all pregnant women who have been in contact with it are being tested, once they decided to become pregnant they could have seen their GP and asked for the immunisation themselves. At one time, all girls were immunised against German measles at 11, to avoid this. And when I became pregnant the hospital immediately gave me a blood test to check I was still immunised.

Answer 4

I think that the NHS and Government should have educated people in Mumps, Measles and Rubella.
Because these 3 illnesses were quite rare due to the MMR vaccine, the generation at the time were unaware of the severity of the diseases, especially measles.
People these days still do not realise that measles can, in extreme cases, be life threatening. Most people think it is like Chickenpox.
The public needs to know the effects of the disease so they can weigh up the risks against the vaccine.
Both of my children had the MMR vaccine because I knew both risks.

Answer 5

im not selfish for not givin my son the mmr i did not have it when i was younger neither did my brother this is my decision. the mmr controversy has started alot of things because wot the doctors and medical people dont tell u that in america they did a 20 yr study of the vaccination mmr and they tested a large amount of children with this quite a good percentage of children ended up with disabilities from this. i would rather give my son it seperately than not at all. i dont want my child to be that 1 in so many children. that is my decision. and my hubby stands by that decision with me. i made my decision b4 the controversy came to light.

Answer 6

I think this contoversy was blown out off proportion ! It frightened mothers and they decided not to have their kids immunised which in my opinion was a shame . I do not know if the links to autism are correct or not but if it was it was minimal , every single thing in life carries a risk . I also admit i do not know the whole picture so forgive me but anyhow i have 4 children and every single one of them received the combined MMR and if i had another baby he/she would have it too .. My children have not suffered anything from these injections .
I would think it better for kids to receive the combined injection as it obviously far better to have it done in one go , and sparing the poor children from 3 seperate jabs , no-one likes injections ! I am sure the benefits of this injection outweigh the " negativity" .

Answer 7

my daughter never had the immunisation for the following reasons. my nephew had autistic tendencies that before the injection were moderate. after the injection they were worse another child older than mine was fine up until he had the injection i seen videos of him before and after and the diffrence is unbelievable. i think autism is genetic and we dont know enough about it and by overloading thier little systems we are taking a major risk and personally i was not taking it. why does the government not offer single ones? my child is 6 now and i would still not have her vaccinated with this. anytime i take her to the doctors they would put pressure on me and last time i was there i signed a disclaimer. another reason for my decision was a worked with somoeone who had vaccine damage when they were a child. each parent makes thier own descision too many things get hidden by the government and dont come to light until years later for example the drug in the 60s and 70s for morning sickness?

Answer 8

This was blown out of all proportion by politically correct parents who where stupid enough to not realise that the possible side effects of the MMR jab was far less then the possible effects of measles mumps or rubella.

Another example of this was the "Zyban" issue, this is a drug that is used to help smokers quit. It was withdrawn for a while because of the possible side effects (I think one person died in Canada from using it?) Yet more people die each day from smoking related illnesses then the amount of people who have had side effect from Zyban across the whole world since its introduction?

Answer 9

I don't believe that it causes autism but i do think that there may be a link, that it could trigger it. I understand the importance of immunisation but it is not selfish not to immunise if you are scared of what might happen to your child. Many people just think that it is too much to put into a child at such a young age. Lets face it who can really put 100% faith in our medical system??? They change their minds all the time and they cover things up because the pharmaceutical companies pay them off!

Answer 10

I have a 12 year old son with autism and although i don't believe that the MMR vaccine caused it in his case I do believe that the vaccine can be a trigger for autism in certain cases. When our son was diagnosed our psycholigist told us that her belief was that autism was a genetic disorder which needed something to trigger it off. This could be an infection, lack of oxygen at birth etc. To me it makes sense that if these things can trigger autism then why can't a measles vaccine. If a child has a lowered immune system then the vaccine could have the same effect on the body as any other viral infection. As I said earlier although I don't believe the vaccine caused our son's autism we did not vaccinate our daughter 2 years later. We decided that as long as there was even a grain of doubt with the vaccine it wasn't worth the risk. Anyone who has a child with autism will understand this. It is heartb reaking to know that your child will suffer from this disorder for the rest of their lives and that they will never live a completely normal life.

Answer 11

The MMR vaccine is a hell of a lot safer then the problems that are associated with the diseases it protects agianst, bot to the person and indirectly to others in the family.