The vaccine

Yonce

Health Care professional here. All childhood vaxs have been done for my 4 kids. I have one son who was born premature with bowel issues 16 years ago, has ongoing asthma too. Have one child who is a chronic asthmatic, hospitalised numerous times. Myself & husband are double vaxxed, no boosters. None of the kids got the vaccine, I felt because it hits them mildly and the vaccine is still very unknown for them we opted out. All kids caught covid over Xmas. Had symptoms for a day if even, and back to normal. Their immune system done its job.

mickuhaha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118438742#Comment_118438742

You should not call yourself a health care professional and state what you have. It could be taken as advice and is contrary to medical advice. You should just state your own opinion and leave out that you may be a health care professional unless you're willing to provide some clear education and qualifications.

Yonce

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118438820#Comment_118438820

Oh, forgive my typo, non medical health care professional here: read my post above.

Is it a requirement of boards to upload our qualifications? No where did I state or recommend that anyone not get their kids vaccinated? Or not. Simply stated my opinion, on an opinion board. I'm sure the parents of Ireland have their own minds and the beauty of freedom of choice around their children.

shesty

My eldest had covid over Christmas (age 7).I am not running for vaccines right now for any of mine, as I don't see why adults have to wait 3 months between having it and getting a vaccine, but somehow it is 4 weeks for kids??Not really willing to take that risk.

The one child in my house who I would be concerned about getting covid, as he has landed a couple of times in A&E with respiratory bugs that seem to cause him more trouble than they do for either of my other two -he is too young to be vaccinated still.So really that just leaves my 5 year old, and I am not sure if she didn't bring covid into the house a few weeks ago.

So I will be holding my fire on any vaccines for now.

Minier81

My child is too young but if it was available for her age group I would absolutely get her vaccinated.

notAMember

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118438166#Comment_118438166

Is calling getting a vaccine “Trauma “ being a little melodramatic?

It’s surely less traumatic than a scraped knee.

El Gato De Negocios

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118442598#Comment_118442598

Scrapes, trips, falls, bumps etc are part and parcel of the natural growing up process. Getting unnecessarily (as we see it) stuck with needles is not. I would have thought it didn't need to be spelled out tbh.

spakman

I don't see the need. If my 5 year old picks up covid (if he hasn't already), it should be very mild, so I'm inclined to let his immune system deal with it naturally if it needs to.

The only reason I see for getting him vaccinated is travel - we're planning on going abroad later this year.

spakman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118438650#Comment_118438650

Vaccination won't prevent you being infected, or even reinfected.

notAMember

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118442607#Comment_118442607

Yes, we see it differently.

I see any opportunity to prevent unnecessary disease as a privilege, and a huge benefit of growing up in the west. A momentary pinprick is not traumatic and I wouldn't encourage that attitude in my children.

How would they ever donate blood in the future if their parents have attached terror to a simple needle. Talk about creating future snowflakes...

El Gato De Negocios

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118442715#Comment_118442715

First and foremost, the vaccine does not prevent catching covid, at all.

As for your utterly brainless snowflake comment, I'm not standing over them telling them they aren't having it so I'm not creating anything, as their parent we are electing to not give them an injection we see as completely unnecessary.

airy fairy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118442613#Comment_118442613

Really?🙄🙄

Don't know how you managed to nit pick my post and conclude that I assumed the vaccine stops infection.

🙄🙄

astrofool

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118420508#Comment_118420508

That is completely your own choice but I would point out that the risk/benefit for the MenB vaccine which you seeked out and paid for is lower than for the COVID vaccines which are being administered freely (more in case others thought that by posting that the numbers were different). The benefits of the COVID vaccines also outweigh that of most of the early childhood vaccination program (it's likely they'll be incorporated into it at some point in the future).

This article goes into the risk/benefit of the COVID vaccines for kids with easily read graphs and data for those that are interested:

The Benefits of Vaccinating Kids against COVID Far Outweigh the Risks of Myocarditis - Scientific American

Bobeagleburger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118443864#Comment_118443864

Pretty clear cut there tbf.

spakman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118443820#Comment_118443820

Alright, calm down. Apologies if I misread what you were trying to say.

No need for the eye rolls.

Rootsblower

i have just come across this thread and I respect everyone’s varying opinions on what to do re vaccination. I have noticed a couple of posters say they won’t be vaccinating their 5-12 year olds unless it’s needed for travel etc. I’m not stirring the pot here on purpose but surely if you dont wish to vaccinate your kid for whatever reason be it health concerns or feel they don’t need it, would not sticking to your principles be more important than a week in Spain.

I totally get that some parents are afraid of potential long term effects of a vaccine and have anxiety regarding the issue after all, you want to do the best for your child. I just find amazing that a parent doesn’t wish to vaccinate because of health concerns( totally understandable with a relatively new vaccine) but if there is no foreign holiday or indoor dining etc without a vaccine they will get their child vaccinated.

Does this mean they place the need for discretionary activities above perceived risk to the child’s health.

Again I’m not trying to stir the pot here. If I didn’t wish to vaccinate my kids and it was needed for travel I just wouldn’t travel.

houseyhouse

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118444104#Comment_118444104

I don’t think it’s as simple as choosing between the child’s health and ‘a week in Spain’. Some people are travelling to see family, not just for holidays. Personally, I’m concerned about the risks of the vaccine but I also don’t think there is a lot of benefit to the vaccine for kids. So when I compare the risks and the benefit, I’m not convinced. If getting the vaccine was necessary for my children to see grandparents/cousins etc that live overseas, I would have to think again. Contact with extended family is also important for children.

notAMember

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118443077#Comment_118443077

I said it prevents serious disease. Which it obviously does, or are you are actually an anti-vaxxer?

you’re somehow still clinging to your claim that a vaccine is “Trauma” , and that being reasonable statement, when there are children fleeing war, and being thrown into boats to drown on treacherous crossings. That’s trauma. Not something made freely available designed to prevent illness and protect.

Rootsblower

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118444225#Comment_118444225

maybe I’m too black and white about things but surely a person must stick to their principles. If a person believes there is an inherent risk to vaccinating a 5-12 year old child then I think whatever the consequences of that decision are is what you must endure be it no travel or partaking in certain activities. I actually admire(loosely) some of the hardcore anti-vax supporters for at least sticking to their principles and not getting the vaccine. I know so many people who said no and then got it so they won’t have to pay for pcr tests for travelling or have to sit outside to eat out and not because it was right thing to do for the country.

How can people about face on their beliefs so easily when the consequences of their beliefs suddenly are inconvenient.

At this point I must say I don’t believe in covid certs for 5-12 year olds to travel etc.

houseyhouse

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118444336#Comment_118444336

There’s always a risk when vaccinating anybody for anything. The question I have in relation to my own kids is whether the benefits outweigh those risks. Some of the benefits are health related (eg less severe illness) but there are also social benefits like access to restaurants, travel etc. Also things that depend in high levels of vaccination like fewer variants, keeping schools open etc. But there’s always a risk. If I believed there was no risk at all, I’d have them registered in a flash.

Rootsblower

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118444403#Comment_118444403

I understand your point.

Equally across society throughout the vaccination campaign people have abandoned their convictions because their convictions and the reality of holding these convictions have become burdensome.

Surely the only benefit v risk calculation regarding kids vaccination should be, will the effect of the vaccine on my child be worse statistically than if they contract covid and what will the cumulative effect of mass vaccination of children be. In my honest opinion social benefits are not something that should be taken into account at all.

Bobeagleburger

The risk of longer term issues arising from Covid aren't mentioned a lot when discussing risk v reward. Issues from vaccination are rare. There's also rare and potentially worse issues from Covid. Also, that's only on two years worth of data.

Viruses are notorious for long term issues. As covid has infected such a massive spread of people I'd fully expect lots of long term problems.

xzanti

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118443864#Comment_118443864

As I've said. Our reasons are our own. I don't wish to discuss it here.

I also never mentioned anything about Myocarditis.

astrofool

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118446479#Comment_118446479

Completely understand, just didn't want someone to erroneously think that the MenB vaccines were "safer" than the COVID vaccines. Everyone has their own reasons and will have their own way of parenting, having the most up to date scientific knowledge on the subject can help. The article covers much more than myocarditis, but that is pretty much the only risk for young people from the vaccines (and as the data points out, the risk from the disease itself is orders of magnitude greater).

I (independently of above) would mention something around how the vaccines get approved for safety, there is an over abundance of caution with regards to medicines, there was heated discussion between members of the approval committee around the risk/reward for the vaccines before approval, that risk/reward in the worst case (teenage males) was 250:1 in favour of vaccination and that is enough for them to be extra cautious when approving a medicine (it was 1400:1 for teenage females). That is as it should be but approval of new vaccines, treatments and medicines is not taken lightly by medical professionals.

Pawwed Rig

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118441657#Comment_118441657

Why?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118443960#Comment_118443960

Is it? I have read the article a couple of times and am not convinced. They are starting on the basis that they are promoting vaccination rather than giving objective data. Also their use of cases per million make it less meaningful to the reader (200 cases per million sounds a lot less likely than 1 chance in 5,000). Additionally, they seem to assume that the only reason anyone would have a reluctance to vaccinate is due to the risk of myocarditis. My guess is (and I may be wrong) but that does not even enter the equation for most people.

The reluctance I and others have is that we do not see a benefit for our children in getting the vaccine. Given the low risk of serious illness is it anymore beneficial getting this than say the annual flu vaccine?

The articles say it reduced the spread of the virus and protects vulnerable people but is that actually the case given that a vaccinated person can still get the virus and transmit it?

Now I am triple vaccinated at this stage and will have no problem getting the kids vaccinated if there is a good reason to do so. Can anyone give me that good reason? The HSE link I posted earlier in the thread certainly doesn't give a good argument and I am not seeing it in the Scientific American article either (maybe I missed something though).

El Gato De Negocios

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118444328#Comment_118444328

Are you just trolling? Because there can be no other genuine reason for the nonsense posted above. The kids have had all their vaccinations, I myself have been double jabbed for covid, and you somehow conclude that Im an anti-vaxxer? 🤣

I humbly apologise if my use of the word trauma has offended your sensibilities. How about if I swap it out for upset instead, is that ok? We are not going to get them vaccinated for covid so as to avoid unnecessary upset, because the vaccine does not prevent transmission and because they both had the original version of the virus and it didnt knock a feather out of them.

Better?

Do you want me to PM you my posts so you can have a read of them before I reply, I'd hate to forget about drowning immigrants again when discussing the vaccine or anything else equally unrelated. Shame on me tbh and Im glad you are here to police my insensitive comments.

notAMember

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118447489#Comment_118447489

Much better, glad you climbed back down from the hyperbole and we don't have to treat your kids for PTSD afterall. Phew!

Maybe when time passes, and the abject horror at someone reacting to your irrational post subsides, you could chill.