Reform supporting anti-vaxxers

Thank you, Iam64!
People get very excited about these issues & keeping a sense of humour (& proportion) is a good idea!

Berd

Dr Watson,
I don’t disagree with the principles of what you say, but the way you’ve put your points across is disrespectful bordering on abusive. I’m new to GN & one of the things I like is that abuse has no place here. You’re giving your views a bad name unfortunately!

Welcome to gransnet Berd

I try to avoid making abusive comments and don’t always share Dr Watson’s views. Different view points add to my enjoyment of gransnet. I want to respond to Dr Watson’s rant by saying thanks, it made me lol. Shameful really but it did

Have a good day everyone

There's a general consensus amongst the anti vaxx parade that vaccinations have caused autism and ADHD in children. I am not in this 'camp' and I find it disappointing that society is so suspicious of vaccinations

Granatlast007

I note that any Guardian article appears to be carefully avoided by GN members, well you certainly won't see this on the BBC...

www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/sep/06/doctor-aseem-malhotra-reform-conference-speech-royal-family-cancer-covid-vaccine?

I find this terrifying. We are fast slipping towards a Trump like country of divisive slanging matches and carelessly thrown out slogans about 'stopping the boats', ditching net zero, overriding sound laws and established regulations. Do you people really want to live in the right wing destruction that is now the US?

School teachers have a heavy responsibility to train children how to evaluate what they see and read.

Dt Watson wrote:-

"I checked a file of so-called side effects that some anti-vax nitwits were spreading via F'book. In it were listed things like a sprained ankle in 2015, migraines in 2010, etc. All this nonsense was faithfully reported by people with an IQ roughly equal to their shoe size, but unfortunately believed by those who don't question what they see in print."

Facebook , as ChatGPT explained to me, has a system that permits bad stuff to go public. I was seeking information about AI- generated photos of the Holocaust. There are 'mills' that grind out disinformation for nefarious purposes.

Berd

An additional reason for Reform politicising the issue could be their interest in discrediting other parties who support vaccination, & fertilising the growth of conspiracy theories which some Reform supporters seem to feed on. Just a suggestion! I’m not especially a ‘leftie’ by the way. But would Reform even exist without Farage, or without the immigration issue? They seem blatantly opportunistic.

They remind me of the Jehovah’s Witnesses who I realised were jumping on whichever was the current bandwagon by saying if people joined them they would be protected from whatever people were worried about at the time. As a young stay at home mother who worried about everything (still do but now old and semi house bound!) it took me a while to twig what they were doing.

Dr Watson,
I don’t disagree with the principles of what you say, but the way you’ve put your points across is disrespectful bordering on abusive. I’m new to GN & one of the things I like is that abuse has no place here. You’re giving your views a bad name unfortunately!

For Karma & Kand -- for Lord's sake stop promoting this ill-informed twaddle re Covid vaccines!

They were developed in a great hurry, at a time of extreme panic and a massive amount of . . .let me remind you . . .DEATH (as Maremia reminds you!). Looked at objectively, they are one of the all-time great medical success stories.

Look up how many folk died (and a generally horrible death too) and that's just the more verifiable figures in N America and Europe. Then check how many gazillions of vax doses were issued, and the actual serious problems that resulted?

People DO react to jabs, of course, but the amount of really serious effects from a Covid jab (NOT just feeling a bit off for a day or two) were about equal to your chances of being hit by a bus while roller-skating backwards over a zebra crossing.

Maybe if in further doubt, check any common medication and the bit of paper that lists all the possible side effects?

I recall that when Covid was in full flow, I checked a file of so-called side effects that some anti-vax nitwits were spreading via F'book. In it were listed things like a sprained ankle in 2015, migraines in 2010, etc. All this nonsense was faithfully reported by people with an IQ roughly equal to their shoe size, but unfortunately believed by those who don't question what they see in print.

And now Chump has appointed someone as a Health supremo, who has no medical background, and a similar level of education, so unlikely to know that the principle of immunisation has been serving mankind well for what, over 220 years?

Kandinsky

But why does rejecting a vaccine make you ‘right wing’ ?

I think this confusion has arisen because of the initial title of the thread ‘Reform supporting anti-vaxers’, Reform being very right wing!

Another who agrees WWM I'll support choice and free speech except when it's delivered by people representing themselves as experts, when they are not and by presenting completely untrue myths as facts, when they are not. I think many of us can see through the falsehoods peddled on social media but some can't and are easy prey.

Grantanow

Vax not tax!!!!

🤣🤣🤣 That’s a different thread 🤣🤣🤣

I hesitated to have baby two given the combined mmr jab, as baby one was poorly after hers. Our health visitor called, good discussion and we agreed to the combined jab.

It must be personal choice but I’d rather see that based on sound medical research not on the ramblings of a representative of a political party.

Whitewavemark2

I as a general rule am very adverse to taking any medication. I use off the shelf painkillers very conservatively and other stuff not at all, unless necessary e.g. I am currently using a fungicide.

I am lucky to be on no medication at 80 years old, although at one stage the practice nurse muttered about statins, but nothing further was forthcoming.

However,

I strongly believe in preventive medicine, which taken together say since the the 19th century has saved million upon million of lives.

Vaccine deniers would condemn millions of adults and children in particular to short perhaps painful lives. Not to mention all the animals that receive preventative vaccines and medication - like worming for my successful hunting cat.

I would not deny people their choice.

But I would deny the anti-vaxxers the ability to spread their ill informed and dangerous beliefs.

Scientists are the ones to inform us, not politicians or people with strange beliefs.

Hear, hear WW. I totally agree!

I agree with you, too,WWM.
I am unhappy that these views were platformed by a political party.
This would seem to give the ( unsupported by science) views of this
nurse credence.

Vax not tax!!!!

The above claim that tax killed 16 million people is completely false. The fact check website page does not support the claim - it says its untrue.

Whitewavemark2 I totally agree.

I as a general rule am very adverse to taking any medication. I use off the shelf painkillers very conservatively and other stuff not at all, unless necessary e.g. I am currently using a fungicide.

I am lucky to be on no medication at 80 years old, although at one stage the practice nurse muttered about statins, but nothing further was forthcoming.

However,

I strongly believe in preventive medicine, which taken together say since the the 19th century has saved million upon million of lives.

Vaccine deniers would condemn millions of adults and children in particular to short perhaps painful lives. Not to mention all the animals that receive preventative vaccines and medication - like worming for my successful hunting cat.

I would not deny people their choice.

But I would deny the anti-vaxxers the ability to spread their ill informed and dangerous beliefs.

Scientists are the ones to inform us, not politicians or people with strange beliefs.

butterandjam

Jeannied

Fartooold

I am very tired of anti vaxxers these vaccines saved lives including my DC’s who would have probably not survived awful Covid!
Am quite concerned regarding the poor take up of children’s vaccines seeing children dying from whooping cough will stay with me forever. Sorry slightly off piste!

FACT. the vax killed 16 million worldwide. Then there are millions who have and still are suffering side effects. I am a lateral thinker and knew from the start that a vax takes between 10 and 15 years to produce and test. Why would I take something introduced in a few months?

FACT. the vax killed 16 million worldwide

Fantasy not fact.

factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.33XF3CN

That was a very confusing post, butterandjam. I thought you were supporting the 16million claim until I followed your link. Others might not bother and just assume that you believe the fantasy too.

It’s really helpful if chunks copied from someone else’s posts are formatted differently. Making text italic or bold is very easy and avoids confusion. (instructions are below the reply box)

When one of our children was born, the GP at the time advised against getting them immunised due to my severe asthma and allergies.

Roll on next child, different GP (absolutely wonderful in all respects) was astonished, so the two children were vaccinated alongside each other, no problems.

In hindsight sight I wonder if the other GP (very old and set in their ways) was an anti-vaxxer? I had all my childhood jabs and every vaccine going since.

(Subsequent children were vaccinated as are the GC)

Kandinsky

The people I knew who were rejecting the MMR back in the day were definitely not right wing.

Daft but not right wing eh😄😄

I won't have anymore, everytime I had vaccine I tested positive for Covid and was very ill. had first five that's it.

The people I knew who were rejecting the MMR back in the day were definitely not right wing.

But why does rejecting a vaccine make you ‘right wing’ ?

My daughter - a micro-biologist worked on the development of the covid jab, in the early days.

What they accomplished was miraculous and saved untold lives.

I don’t really understand the science behind it and quite clearly neither does anyone on here - judging by the rubbish talked.

But I believe in the freedom of choice. So of course we must be free to reject any medical intervention offered at any stage of our life.

But in rejecting anything don’t feel that you have to talk rubbish to justify your decision.