Parenting 
No Comments To have or not to have …the MMR
The huge hullabaloo about the MMR vaccine continues to plague the decision making process of most parents with toddlers and I am no exception. Tony Blair has refused to comment on whether his youngest child, Leo was given the vaccine, while current Tory leader David Cameron told the press that all his children had been given the MMR.
What of all the evidence that points to the fact that MMR is linked to autism and the mountain of evidence scientists have attempted to put forth disclaiming the link? Lucky for me, I have easy access to all those journal articles, including the original Wakefield study that many later claim was exceedingly flawed.
Based on science, it does seem that there is little to suggest a direct link between MMR and autism. That is not to say the vaccine is safe. As with all vaccines, combined or separate, each contains either the dead or weakened live form of the disease. Apparently, for the MMR, the individual jabs are not necessarily any safer than the combined one.
The anecdotal evidence however is much, much more scary. How can you not feel fear grip it’s icy fingers about your heart when you read of parents convinced that their children were perfectly healthy and reaching all developmental milestones until their MMR jabs. Worse still, of the child who was accidentally given the second dose of this triple dose vaccine instead of the first…..apparently he never recovered.
Tabloid fodder or not, it does not make a parent any more confident of the MMR when the former Chief Scientific Officer claims that the UK Government has not evaluated properly the risks posed by the vaccine. One does wonder why he did not do more to stop the use of the vaccine during his time in the Government.
The notion that either measles, mumps or ruebella is fatal, seems rather difficult to swallow in it’s entirety when we live in urban communities with almost instant access to health-care if necessary. It is a completely different story, in the rural outback if one had to travel miles and miles on foot or for days to see a doctor.
The long and short of it all, I am not convinced the MMR is a complete safe bet. So Georgia will not be getting it for now.
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