Call to make MMR jab compulsory
By Graham Satchell, BBC News.'Sir Sandy Macara: 'I don't mind if people call this draconian'
A former chairman of the British Medical Association is calling for the MMR jab to be made compulsory.
Public health expert Sir Sandy Macara believes children should not be able to go to school unless they have first been vaccinated.
Sir Sandy has submitted a motion for debate at the annual BMA conference later this month.
Uptake of the MMR vaccine fell sharply after controversial research wrongly linked it to a raised risk of autism.
One in four children under five in England and Wales has not had both MMR injections, which are needed to give full protection against measles, mumps and rubella.
As a result there have been measles outbreaks across the country, and experts at the Health Protection Agency now fear a measles epidemic is likely.
Sir Sandy said: "Our attempts to persuade people have failed."
"The suggestion is that we ought to consider making a link which in effect would make it compulsory for children to be immunised if they are to receive the benefit of a free education from the state."
Linking vaccinations to school admission is controversial but common in other countries. It happens in the US, most of Australia, Spain and Greece....'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8078500.stm
What exactly does this privileged man, Sir Sandy Macara, mean by the term "free"?
If I call you over to my garden gate and hand you a bag of apples from my trees and say, take these, I have too many, I don't want payment - That is "free". You have a free bag of apples. (You might feel emotionally obliged to give me a free bag of plums from your tree in return, however)
In the early sixties many women were persuaded to change washing powder or breakfast cereal by the offer of a free gift, eg. a "free" plastic daffodil literally stuck to the side of the box. You may laugh but it is true I promise you, marketing was crude and unsubtle back then. Of course the flowers weren't really "free," their cost was covered by the small price increases introduced at later dates when lots of women were used to, and had then grown fond of, whichever washing powder it was and happily paid that little bit more.
Gameshows and the lottery now offer prizes, you might win some "free" money or "free" holidays but their cost is covered by buying tickets or making calls.
Education in the UK is not free, neither is medical care. We do not have a free health system or education service here. They may be free at the point of delivery but they are most definately NOT FREE! It costs a great deal of money to run these services and these huge costs are entirely covered by all our working men and women, and by our older generations' past contributions.
We get our education and health care 'cos we've already paid for them, and we are entitled to them. THEY ARE OURS! To deny them to us is theft, fraud and receiving money under false pretences. It may also be conspiracy, negligence and a whole load of other offences -
SO BACK OFF, SIR SANDY!
Growing numbers of people are becoming uneasy about the direction in which science is now headed. People are concerned about the use of genetic modification and nanotechnology. Are we sensible to just follow the government's advice on everything in our lives, or should we question more? And make our own decisions? Governments lie, sorry, they do! We all know that! Can we trust them to do what is right for our children? Or should we be wary of what they say? What about drug companies? Are they benevolent organisations that help poor people? Or are they run by hard-nosed businessmen for profit? On behalf of the share-holders?
Looking at the public's comments at the end of this BBC article is amazing! Some of these idiots belong in Red China or North Korea:
http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?forumID=6532&edition=1&ttl=20090604154651
Examples:
Added: Thursday, 4 June, 2009, 10:05 GMT 11:05
Absolutely MMR should be compulsory. Any parent who fails to immunise and whose child then infects another should be sued to bankruptcy especially if the victim dies or is permanently damaged.
Added: Thursday, 4 June, 2009, 09:04 GMT 10:04
Any parent who refuses vaccination, and then has a child ill with a prevetable disease should be charged with negligence. Any parent whose child dies from a disease that can be vaccinated against should be charged with murder.
Added: Thursday, 4 June, 2009, 08:55 GMT 09:55
It's not about parental choice: it's about public health. It should not be compulsory - but any child not properly immunised without good reason (and I mean medical not superstitious) should be excluded from state education on ground they present a health risk to other pupils. They have covered the measles outbreaks on the news recently & the resident GP said there have already been a some of deaths as a result. Would you want your child put at risk through others' negligence?
Added: Thursday, 4 June, 2009, 08:49 GMT 09:49
"Many of us know parents who are 100% certain that their kids are autistic as a direct result of MMR"
That means nothing. Plenty of people are certain of things being true when they are demonstratably false.
Simply spending 5 minutes reading wikipedia would inform readers of the dishonest tactics used, as well as many studies and reports (over 25) worldwide on how safe the vaccine is. Interesting how the supposed autism cases only occured in the
Added: Thursday, 4 June, 2009, 08:30 GMT 09:30
Of course it should because it isnt just for that particular child! Not vaccinating has an affect on other children who are too young to have the vaccine.
Make it compulsory and make the parents liable.
If they break the law then they forfeit their right to NHS care and if their child infects another blameless child then those parents can sue the ones who chose not to get their child vaccinated.
Land of the free - yes - but only with responsibilty. (puke)
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Crikey! Stone Me! Jack-Boot Central, or what?
This comment is interesting though:
Added: Thursday, 4 June, 2009, 07:56 GMT 08:56
As someone who knows Dr Wakefield, I can say that the debacle regarding the MMR was purely political. Blair's Government decided to save money so, when Dr Wakefield's research was made public and threatened the virtual compulsory giving of MMR vaccinations, the furore that followed was because the Government was thwarted. The MMR should NOT be compulsory; some children's immune systems may not cope. Bring back single vaccinations for measles; we managed with it before, why not now?
On this blog is a section on the right – scroll down, called Serious Child Health Issues and it links to articles on the MMR vaccine, amongst other things, eg :
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nrm3qrZkzQw
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7h6aHDLJVZUI personally believe that there is a link between modern vaccines and dyslexia. Can I prove it? No, I am not a scientist or a doctor.