Vaccinations and why I am still angry with the media

March 18, 2013 by SillyDaddy 8 Comments

So Red nose day has been and gone, however I thought of something last night that I want to share with you all.

After a long day we sat down to watch TV in the evening, watched some very funny, very entertaining stuff. As we usually do we flick through the channels for 5/10 minutes before heading to bed. We did the same again last night and came to the BBC’s best bits of comic relief 2013. We arrived at the time of the Call the midwife special and after that saw the Vaccination video with Davina McCall.

That’s when it hit us and we started talking about the madness that was the MMR scare over here. Which still to this day has repercussions. Why does it still to this day affect people? Because the media as per usual whipped it up in such a frenzy that a lot of people decided not to give their kids the MMR vaccine. Now I know what you’re saying it should be the right of someone to say no to something they’re not comfortable with, but did they really know why they weren’t comfortable with it?

Lets look at the offending study that all the media quoted back then in more detail. First of it was a study that was riddled with mistakes, it was a study undertaken with 11 test subjects. That is even less than these stupid good for nothing tests you seen on all these health & beauty ads you see on telly. This study said that the MMR vaccine could in certain cases promote the possibility of the child developing autism. Which as soon as this study was published was disproven by other much bigger and better studies. But because the media saw the possibility of a huge campaign and that there was money to be made they focused on this flawed study and all hell broke loose.

In months and years after that media frenzy it was positively proven that MMR and autism were about as likely to be linked as piles were linked to Lung cancer. Now making the accusation that Piles could give you lung cancer would you go to your doctor and create merry hell about this or would you look for further studies on this matter?

Having watched the comic relief videos about vaccination projects in Africa and read what Team Honk first hand saw about this I do feel I have to ask the uncomfortable question: What would you chose? The possibility that your child might develop autism or the possibility that your child could die?

In Africa children die every day because they haven’t got access to the simplest vaccines we take for granted and we here in our safe and cushy western civilized world got up in arms about a flawed study that linked the MMR vaccine to Autism?

Lets look at it from a different point of view. Lets take the MMR apart. The first M stands for Measels, the second M stands for Mumps, the R stands for Rubella.

After the media frenzy about the possible link to autism the take up of the MMR vaccine dropped dramatically. Which was in no way helped by the former PM Tony ‘No comment’ Blair who refused to say to anyone if his kids had the MMR vaccine or not.

The drop in the uptake of the MMR vaccine surely meant a rise in measles. Now measles can cause meningitis, deafness, in some cases can even lead to brain damage or death. Is the remote possibility of your child developing autism really worse than all those possibilities, I think not. But still the media didn’t tell you that back then, did they!

There has been conclusive proof that Mumps can, to name just a few, cause hearing problems up to hearing loss, it can make men less fertile or in some cases can leave a man infertile.

The worst still is what Rubella can do to girls and women, especially when a pregnant woman comes in contact with someone who is suffering from Rubella. The problems in pregnancy and the disastrous consequences it can have to an unborn child are just to harrowing to even tell you about. So please someone tell me why the media back then made such a big thing about the possibility of the MMR vaccine being a contributing factor in why a child becomes autistic?

It still makes me sick to my stomach when I see children in hospital fighting for their lives because they haven’t had access to the most basic of vaccines we take for granted and then we in all honestely stand there and say No my child will not get the MMR vaccine because didn’t you know there is a minute chance that he/she might become autistic. As I said that is, excuse the language utter bullshit, but not only that I rather have an autistic son than no son!

Go talk to someone who knows about Autism, try telling a mother of an autistic child that you don’t want to immunise your child because you’re afraid your child will end up like hers. See what she says to you?

I could go on and on about it, but if you haven’t got the message by now it’s hopeless anyway. We didn’t even have to think twice when we were asked if our children could be immunised against Measles, Mumps and Rubella. We said ‘Yes of course’.

One more thing about autism that made my blood boil. To my friend, you know who you are, I like to say this now, this had to be said because it was just horrendous when I first heard so I’m sorry for putting it out in the public domain.

A mutual friend of ours said to this friend of ours after her child was formally diagnosed with Autism that it was ok we could now find out what her childs superpower was? WTF are you thinking or not thinking to justify this outburst as an appropriate thing to say? There are hundreds of things that must have been going through this mothers mind how it will affect her Childs’ future, her childs’ outlook on life. This miraculous, wonderful child seriously is the most loving little kid I ever had the pleasure of knowning and then someone who is a close friend goes and says something like that?

Anyway I hope I haven’t bored you too much with this rant, but I really felt that all this had to be said and if you’re not too bored yet I’d love to hear your opinion too.