'Vaccinate your kids - a quick jab is better than a knockout blow later'
When a toddler is wailing in the doctor’s surgery because someone has jabbed a needle into their thigh, it’s enough to make any parent wince. But in my opinion, this brief moment of pain is worth it.
I’ve always been first in line with my kids for any childhood vaccines that were available. MMR dose? Stick your arms out, kids. Polio booster? Yes please. Covid jab? Sign us up. “It will just feel like a little pinch,” I say, with bribery materials lined up. A friendly nurse is usually on hand with a sticker or a teddy. A packet of chocolate buttons goes a long way in situations like this.
Health experts this week said children are suffering needlessly because fewer parents are opting for routine childhood vaccines. The UK Health Security Agency is even launching a campaign to try to boost the uptake after all jabs missed the 95% World Health Organisation target in England last year. “If we’re not vaccinated, we’re not protected,” the children in the campaign video plead to their parents.
This isn’t a drill. Cases of measles have spiked and polio has been found in London’s sewers again for the first time in decades. It all feels a little medieval. What’s next, the plague? Oh hang on, yes we’ve had that too... My dad, who is practically deaf in his right ear, blames a case of measles that led to an ear infection when he was eight years old. My no-nonsense grandma probably gave him a dose of cod liver oil or a doughnut (or both) and told him to go and do his homework.
The standard immunisation programme in England offers protection against 13 diseases, including measles, mumps and diphtheria, which is frankly an incredible feat of science. My grandpa, who had polio as a child, was marching down to the local Covid vaccine centre at the age of 98, amazed and grateful that science can protect us in this way. Of course, not everyone agrees, with a decline in vaccine uptake over the last decade, exacerbated by the pandemic.
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An anti-vaxxer friend once yelled at me that I had “poisoned my children” –screaming wasn’t the best of arguments – and I feared for our herd immunity on speaking to Covid-deniers who refused the jab. I understand that injecting your kids can feel concerning, perhaps even unnecessary – parents reasonably worry about side effects and we all want our children to stay healthy. But if we can prevent outbreaks of deadly diseases with nasty complications, then surely skipping vaccines is not a risk worth taking?
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