If you live in England and haven't been vaccinated you can make an appointment with a GP to sort it out. Just about anyone in England is entitled to register with a GP and to get free treatment...
If you live in England and haven't been vaccinated you can make an appointment with a GP to sort it out.
Just about anyone in England is entitled to register with a GP and to get free treatment from a GP. You do not need ID, nor proof of address, nor proof of entitlement to NHS services in order to register.
If you are 16 or over you can consent to get treatment and you won't need your parent's permission. And they can't be told, either.
If you're under 16 the doctor will see if you can weigh up the information and make a decision -- this is "Gillick Competence". If you are Gillick Competent then you can make decisions about your medical treatment by yourself, you won't need your parent's permission.
GP surgeries are really happy to see people who want vaccinations!! They see a lot of university students who want to get all their vaccinations, who had parents who didn't vaccinate.
I was born just before the current known-effective measles vaccine came out in 1967. So, when local cases were reported, I got re-immunized at the county health department, for a cost of $10. No...
I was born just before the current known-effective measles vaccine came out in 1967. So, when local cases were reported, I got re-immunized at the county health department, for a cost of $10. No side effects, with either the first shot or the booster.
I had extra incentive because my father nearly died from adult measles in the 1950's. Hardly anyone now recognizes measles as the dire illness it's been throughout history. Measles, not smallpox, was the disease that wiped out most of the indigenous population of the Americas. Like influenza, measles causes immunosuppression for weeks after the virus passes. Even if the virus itself doesn't kill you, the subsequent pneumonia, meningitis, or other bacterial infections might. Measles still causes thousands of deaths worldwide, and incalculable suffering.
Measles has an affinity for nerve tissues; it likely caused Helen Keller's blindness and deafness. My father lost most of his senses of taste and smell, as well as sustaining orchitis that meant my parents didn't have kids for 10 years.
It completely baffles me that anyone would subject their children to these risks, but it's not like current media are doing a good job of communicating them.
You touched on an idea that has been bugging me wrt the anti-vax movement: do anti-vaxxers not have parents or grandparents who were alive during the advent of modern vaccines?
You touched on an idea that has been bugging me wrt the anti-vax movement: do anti-vaxxers not have parents or grandparents who were alive during the advent of modern vaccines?
My parents were born in the 1920's, and both sustained lifelong injury from diseases that are now preventable or readily treatable. I grew up hearing stories about the grandfather who died young...
Exemplary
My parents were born in the 1920's, and both sustained lifelong injury from diseases that are now preventable or readily treatable. I grew up hearing stories about the grandfather who died young from rheumatic heart disease, the grandfather who lost his hearing in his 30's after an infection, the year one of their cousins spent in an iron lung due to polio, and the fearsome childhood death rates in their parents' generation.
I can't say how much or little influence that kind of generational experience has had in other families. Growing up, my age mates had parents nearly a generation younger than mine. Given the progress in medicine of the 1940s - '70's, crippled or dead relatives weren't routine dinner table conversation in their households.
Even so, my best friend got chickenpox late in high school, so severely she spent a few days in a hospital burn unit, and was fortunate to avoid drastic scarring. Another friend was treated for cervical cancer due to HPV, in her 20's. Both my brother and my husband have had painful, debilitating episodes of shingles (reactivation of chickenpox virus in nerves); my brother was hospitalized because the infection involved his eyes and there was a significant risk of blindness.
It's hard for me to avoid frothing rage when people talk about these diseases as if they're trivial. Chickenpox, HPV, and shingles are now preventable with vaccines.
Frankly, with my second measles booster, I also got immunizations for everything else I could possibly get safely - Hep A and B, tetanus booster, pneumococcus, shingles...no 2019 'flu vaccine yet, unfortunately. I was feverish and sore for a day, but that's a trivial price for avoiding preventable illnesses or spreading them to others. It was also in part professional necessity - most U.S. hospitals are now requiring vendors to provide proof of immunizations.
I'm not an uncritical fan of modern Western medicine, but I'm mightily grateful for its successes. The current Ebola epidemic is leaving its own legacy of generational trauma, and the speed with which vaccines and cures have emerged is amazing.
I've been acquainted with a couple of people who have well-developed conspiratorial mindsets, but vaccines weren't among their particular fixations. I don't think I've ever met a serious anti-vaxxer long enough to find out whether their beliefs conflicted with prior generations of relatives. I've somehow managed to avoid contact with whatever information sources they're using to construct their beliefs.
You've given me an idea for a survey - Tilders are a rather specifically selected population and the results could be interesting.
Wow... I thought it was a week of red spots in your face and that's it. I wasn't vaccinated against anything; if I ask for all those shots they give you as babies, will they still be as effective?...
Wow... I thought it was a week of red spots in your face and that's it. I wasn't vaccinated against anything; if I ask for all those shots they give you as babies, will they still be as effective?
@DanBC I looked up "Gillick Competent" and the first thing I see is people are against it, but it's miles better than policies in most places on the Continent. I had to bluff and threaten a doc with the police because she tried to go over my head despite certain papers I have. I thought Okay, I walked into the city's sole nutty croaker's, but then went through the same circus twice more! Gillick sounds much better.
Gillick Competency is I think really good. It balances a parent's right to be a parent and make decisions with a child's emerging rights to make their own decisions. Doctors will usually try to...
Gillick Competency is I think really good. It balances a parent's right to be a parent and make decisions with a child's emerging rights to make their own decisions.
Doctors will usually try to inform the parent with the child's permission. They'll work with the child to find a way to get the parent involved. (With some obvious exceptions for abusive parents).
Oh hey, thanks for taking the trouble. I couldn't find a hard answer myself. Got a bit worried after reading some of the comments and asked in a few pharmacies, but they said to see a doc, and...
Oh hey, thanks for taking the trouble. I couldn't find a hard answer myself. Got a bit worried after reading some of the comments and asked in a few pharmacies, but they said to see a doc, and that I'd probably have to wait a few years. So thanks.
No, it's extremely rare. Measles was eliminated from the US in 2000 (eliminated, not eradicated, there's an important distinction to epidemiologists). Measles is amazingly contagious if you're not...
Measles is amazingly contagious if you're not vaccinated, and as vaccination rates in the US have dropped off we're at more and more risk of it spreading. Somewhere like Disneyland has the potential to be a really bad place for an outbreak to start, because you have so many people in close proximity, and then they get on planes and tour buses and travel all over the country and the world.
I've been seeing articles like this in my local news recently. They've been popping up every couple of weeks over the past year or so. "Measles warning for people who visited the airport on X...
I've been seeing articles like this in my local news recently. They've been popping up every couple of weeks over the past year or so. "Measles warning for people who visited the airport on X date." "Measles alert: infected person visited these areas on these dates." And so on.
Checking news for other cities around Australia, it seems to be happening everywhere.
Maybe you're just lucky that it's not happening in your area, which is why you don't see reports like this.
In a country like Australia, where measles has basically been wiped out, this is news - especially with a small but growing group of people who are not vaccinating their infants against measles, who need to be warned about this potentially lethal disease.
If you live in England and haven't been vaccinated you can make an appointment with a GP to sort it out.
Just about anyone in England is entitled to register with a GP and to get free treatment from a GP. You do not need ID, nor proof of address, nor proof of entitlement to NHS services in order to register.
If you are 16 or over you can consent to get treatment and you won't need your parent's permission. And they can't be told, either.
If you're under 16 the doctor will see if you can weigh up the information and make a decision -- this is "Gillick Competence". If you are Gillick Competent then you can make decisions about your medical treatment by yourself, you won't need your parent's permission.
The NHS England site for vaccinations is here: https://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/vaccinations/
GP surgeries are really happy to see people who want vaccinations!! They see a lot of university students who want to get all their vaccinations, who had parents who didn't vaccinate.
I was born just before the current known-effective measles vaccine came out in 1967. So, when local cases were reported, I got re-immunized at the county health department, for a cost of $10. No side effects, with either the first shot or the booster.
I had extra incentive because my father nearly died from adult measles in the 1950's. Hardly anyone now recognizes measles as the dire illness it's been throughout history. Measles, not smallpox, was the disease that wiped out most of the indigenous population of the Americas. Like influenza, measles causes immunosuppression for weeks after the virus passes. Even if the virus itself doesn't kill you, the subsequent pneumonia, meningitis, or other bacterial infections might. Measles still causes thousands of deaths worldwide, and incalculable suffering.
Measles has an affinity for nerve tissues; it likely caused Helen Keller's blindness and deafness. My father lost most of his senses of taste and smell, as well as sustaining orchitis that meant my parents didn't have kids for 10 years.
It completely baffles me that anyone would subject their children to these risks, but it's not like current media are doing a good job of communicating them.
You touched on an idea that has been bugging me wrt the anti-vax movement: do anti-vaxxers not have parents or grandparents who were alive during the advent of modern vaccines?
My parents were born in the 1920's, and both sustained lifelong injury from diseases that are now preventable or readily treatable. I grew up hearing stories about the grandfather who died young from rheumatic heart disease, the grandfather who lost his hearing in his 30's after an infection, the year one of their cousins spent in an iron lung due to polio, and the fearsome childhood death rates in their parents' generation.
I can't say how much or little influence that kind of generational experience has had in other families. Growing up, my age mates had parents nearly a generation younger than mine. Given the progress in medicine of the 1940s - '70's, crippled or dead relatives weren't routine dinner table conversation in their households.
Even so, my best friend got chickenpox late in high school, so severely she spent a few days in a hospital burn unit, and was fortunate to avoid drastic scarring. Another friend was treated for cervical cancer due to HPV, in her 20's. Both my brother and my husband have had painful, debilitating episodes of shingles (reactivation of chickenpox virus in nerves); my brother was hospitalized because the infection involved his eyes and there was a significant risk of blindness.
It's hard for me to avoid frothing rage when people talk about these diseases as if they're trivial. Chickenpox, HPV, and shingles are now preventable with vaccines.
Frankly, with my second measles booster, I also got immunizations for everything else I could possibly get safely - Hep A and B, tetanus booster, pneumococcus, shingles...no 2019 'flu vaccine yet, unfortunately. I was feverish and sore for a day, but that's a trivial price for avoiding preventable illnesses or spreading them to others. It was also in part professional necessity - most U.S. hospitals are now requiring vendors to provide proof of immunizations.
I'm not an uncritical fan of modern Western medicine, but I'm mightily grateful for its successes. The current Ebola epidemic is leaving its own legacy of generational trauma, and the speed with which vaccines and cures have emerged is amazing.
I've been acquainted with a couple of people who have well-developed conspiratorial mindsets, but vaccines weren't among their particular fixations. I don't think I've ever met a serious anti-vaxxer long enough to find out whether their beliefs conflicted with prior generations of relatives. I've somehow managed to avoid contact with whatever information sources they're using to construct their beliefs.
You've given me an idea for a survey - Tilders are a rather specifically selected population and the results could be interesting.
Wow... I thought it was a week of red spots in your face and that's it. I wasn't vaccinated against anything; if I ask for all those shots they give you as babies, will they still be as effective?
@DanBC I looked up "Gillick Competent" and the first thing I see is people are against it, but it's miles better than policies in most places on the Continent. I had to bluff and threaten a doc with the police because she tried to go over my head despite certain papers I have. I thought Okay, I walked into the city's sole nutty croaker's, but then went through the same circus twice more! Gillick sounds much better.
Gillick Competency is I think really good. It balances a parent's right to be a parent and make decisions with a child's emerging rights to make their own decisions.
Doctors will usually try to inform the parent with the child's permission. They'll work with the child to find a way to get the parent involved. (With some obvious exceptions for abusive parents).
Oh hey, thanks for taking the trouble. I couldn't find a hard answer myself. Got a bit worried after reading some of the comments and asked in a few pharmacies, but they said to see a doc, and that I'd probably have to wait a few years. So thanks.
Interesting that this gets a headline? On a grander scale, shouldn't this happen like daily for places that get millions of visitors a year?
No, it's extremely rare. Measles was eliminated from the US in 2000 (eliminated, not eradicated, there's an important distinction to epidemiologists).
Measles is amazingly contagious if you're not vaccinated, and as vaccination rates in the US have dropped off we're at more and more risk of it spreading. Somewhere like Disneyland has the potential to be a really bad place for an outbreak to start, because you have so many people in close proximity, and then they get on planes and tour buses and travel all over the country and the world.
I'll be amused if Disney has to start requiring vaccination records before letting kids into their parks, just like dogs at pet lodges.
I've been seeing articles like this in my local news recently. They've been popping up every couple of weeks over the past year or so. "Measles warning for people who visited the airport on X date." "Measles alert: infected person visited these areas on these dates." And so on.
Checking news for other cities around Australia, it seems to be happening everywhere.
Maybe you're just lucky that it's not happening in your area, which is why you don't see reports like this.
In a country like Australia, where measles has basically been wiped out, this is news - especially with a small but growing group of people who are not vaccinating their infants against measles, who need to be warned about this potentially lethal disease.
I'm impressed she managed to do five days worth of stuff around LA and Orange County in only three days.