Texas Measles Outbreak 2025

Who are these antivaxxers? They seem to be very influential as take up of MMR is falling year by year.

They claim that they have doctors among their number but, if this is true, these doctors seem very reluctant to explain their position.

I looked on Youtube in an effort to find an explantation as to why they take this view and all I could find was anti antivax stuff.

Do you remember Dr.Andrew Wakefield who published his very, very dodgy research in 1998. He claimed the MMR vaccine caused autism and the newspapers latched on to it and the vaccine uptake dropped for a time.

I just googled him. After being struck off the register he moved to the US where he is an active antivaxer.

Nearly every child of my immediate post war generation caught it. Pretty nasty disease and if there had been a vaccine then we would all have had it. Much worse than chickenpox or German measles and even mumps - that wasn’t much fun, either.

My DD1 has already bought Calpol in anticipation of GS’s first vaccinations, although he’s only 7 weeks old so not due them yet. DD was not able to have all her jabs growing up as she wasn’t allowed live vaccines. Herd immunity is so important to protect the vulnerable. IMHO it’s a social responsibility but know that not everyone feels the same.

I agree with yiu Lovemylife, it’s a social responsibility to have vaccines.
The general anti vax movement is growing. I hear younger people blaming the covid vaccine for all manner of health issues, whilst insisting they’ll never have vaccines again

One of the antivaxxers I saw on Youtube had a placard which read "MY CHILDREN MY DECISION" implying that you own your children and therefore have an absolute right to dictate what happens to them.

CocoPops

Do you remember Dr.Andrew Wakefield who published his very, very dodgy research in 1998. He claimed the MMR vaccine caused autism and the newspapers latched on to it and the vaccine uptake dropped for a time.

In his first study (on 91 children with autism) Andrew Walker claimed he found a spectacular degree of link between the MMR vaccine and autism (75 of the 91). The paper, published in 1998, was flawed for two reasons (detailed in chop.edu link below)

In 1999, Brent Taylor and co-workers examined the records of 498 children in the North Thames region with autism or autism-like disorder, in an excellent, well-controlled study. (see chop.edu link below)
They found that:-
1) The percentage of children vaccinated was the same in children with autism as in other children in the North Thames region.
2) No difference in the age of diagnosis of autism was found in vaccinated and unvaccinated children.
3) The onset of symptoms of autism did not occur within two, four, or six months of receiving the MMR vaccine.

One of the best studies was performed by Madsen and colleagues in Denmark between 1991 and 1998 and reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study included 537,303 children representing 2,129,864 person-years of study. Approximately 82% of children had received the MMR vaccine.
The risk of autism in the group of vaccinated children was the same as that in unvaccinated children. Furthermore, there was no association between the age at the time of vaccination, the time since vaccination, or the date of vaccination and the development of autism.

Subsequent studies and meta-analysis have corroborated the findings that the MMR vaccine does not cause autism.

Andrew Walker resigned from his UK positions 2001 "by mutual agreement", then moved to the United States. In 2004, Wakefield co-founded and began working at the Thoughtful House research centre (later renamed the Johnson Center for Child Health and Development) in Austin, Texas. He served as executive director of the centre until February 2010, when he resigned in the wake of findings against him by the British General Medical Council which had struck him off their register. He has subsequently become known for his anti-vaccination activism.

www.chop.edu/vaccine-education-center/vaccine-safety/vaccines-and-other-conditions/autism

and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Wakefield

I think it will be partly due to a reaction against what happened in Covid, the bullying and authoritarianism towards the issue of vaccination was unpleasant, it was bound to cause a reaction.

Measles damaged my ex-husband's eyes when he was 7, and left my best friend with lifelong lung problems... It's a horrible disease, can be easily prevented (in the vast majority of cases) and any parent who doesn't get their child vaccinated is taking risks with their life... 😥

Two children have now died from measles in Texas.

I remember the misery of both measles and mumps and made sure my children had the early measles jab. Why on earth would anyone not want to protect children?

The USA is no longer a beacon of light is it, more like a place of doom

Agree absolutely Iam64.

Sadly, nothing stops bears of little brain posting utter nonsense on the world wide web.
Some people who read this balderdash believe stuff unconditionally.
A friend is being harassed by a neighbour who insists that her many ailments - headaches, nausea etc etc are caused by my the ( detached) house of my friend having the internet.
She " knows" that this is the cause of her symptoms because her doctor has been unable, despite a range of exhaustive tests, to find any other cause. She is able to quote any number of random " specialists " who warn of the dangers of living near to internet routers.
Where did she find this dubious reasoning: on the internet, of course!

Goodness chocolatelovingran, I thought my next door neighbours a bit of a challenge but now realise they’re fairly ordinary

I didn't catch measles till I was 13. In spite of the GP giving me antibiotics as a preventive I developed bronchitis and was in bed for a month having a miserable time.

Because my daughter had been in hospital with gastroenteritis and possible kidney failure we were advised to delay the measles vaccine. This meant that she caught measles and gave it to her 2 year old brother. He got off quite lightly but, after 45 years, she still has trouble with her eyes in sunny weather.

When it comes to autism, my autistic grandson has actually had less vaccinations than his neurotypical brother. His mother is a biochemist and is perfectly happy that there is no link.