Dear readers, our reader has been following the U5 because she no longer wants her child to be vaccinated and the practice no longer wants to treat her. We asked her what her personal views are on vaccination, both for herself and for society as a whole, and why she decided to stop. (Editor’s note: The following answers are the personal views of a mother whose doctor does not wish to support her decision. Since our children are vaccinated, we are interested in what motivates someone who sees things differently, on what basis such decisions are made and how they are then dealt with.)
You had your child’s U5 yesterday and were effectively asked to leave the practice. What happened?
Yes, I had my son’s U5 check-up yesterday. I was really looking forward to it and was excited to see what would be done and what the doctor would tell me about his development, etc. So we went there and had to wait a long time in the waiting room again, but that’s just something you have to accept (although I still feel that we are being treated differently).
A doctor’s assistant, who was very nice, by the way, then took me and my son to be weighed and measured, and asked me if I wanted to have an eye screening, but that would cost £30. Of course, I said ‚yes‘. Up to that point, everything was great.
And then?
Then the doctor came in, sat down, typed on her keyboard and asked me straight out why I was behind with vaccinations…
I replied: My husband and I have decided not to vaccinate our son any further, as it’s too much for us. Our son is very healthy, we ourselves are also unvaccinated and we don’t want that. The only thing he should get is the chickenpox/rubella vaccination.“
How did the doctor react?
She disagreed and immediately became very different. She said that my child could contract life-threatening diseases, that they had many patients in their practice, including cancer patients, infants, etc., and that they could not take responsibility if my unvaccinated child infected the others. If I didn’t vaccinate my son anymore, we wouldn’t need to come back and would have to find another doctor, as she couldn’t continue treating him. She would give me time to think about it. The doctor said she couldn’t take responsibility for my unvaccinated child infecting other people in the practice.
How did that make you feel?
I was angry, but at the same time I felt sorry for her and thought it was ridiculous. Because I don’t think a doctor should ever say something like that. My gut feeling tells me that this is not about the well-being of the child.
How did you react on the spot?
I just said: Then that’s how it is. He’s not getting vaccinated! Then she looked at my son once, at his tummy, his private parts, turned him to the side, up and down, and that was it.
I then wanted to know something about his bowel movements. She said: Find the photo, I’ll come back. Done. Got the answer… and she was gone. I stood there like an idiot, thinking that she might tell me something about nutrition or teething…, but nothing came and so the U5 came to an end. We were simply dismissed, and they made sure we knew it. We are now looking for a new doctor. We’ll see how it goes there.
Have you felt well cared for at the practice so far?
At first, we thought: Great practice, everyone is nice and there are no long waiting times. Until the topic of vaccinations came up and I was asked four times and said no each time. At every subsequent visit, I almost always had to wait at least an hour, and the examinations were short and over quickly. From the day we said we didn’t want any more vaccinations, we were treated differently. Only the bare minimum was done.
How do the people around you react?
Some people are shocked by our expulsion and think the same way we do. Others agree with the doctor.
Which vaccinations did you not want to have done without consultation?
My child received the 6-in-1 vaccination once and the oral vaccination twice. Afterwards, he suffered from stomach pains and then it was clear to us: no more vaccinations.
Now they wanted to give him the 6-in-1 vaccine twice more, the pneumococcal vaccine twice, the meningococcal B vaccine twice and the RSV vaccine.
Why did you decide not to have your child vaccinated? On what basis did you make this decision for yourself and your family?
We decided against it because it’s just too much for us. We have a healthy child, his immune system is great, my husband and I were ill with flu in the winter and our son didn’t even catch anything. Why should I vaccinate a healthy child so much? Then he had stomach ache after the first vaccination, and I knew: no, there’s no way we’re continuing with this. I don’t believe in getting vaccinated against everything.
Are you reconsidering now, or are you now firmly in the ‚definitely not‘ camp?
NO, there’s no reconsidering.
Are you vaccinated yourself? Against what, against what not?
Unfortunately, we have both been vaccinated against COVID-19 once, but otherwise we are completely unvaccinated. It was compulsory at the time and unfortunately we went along with it once, but that won’t happen to us again, and certainly not with our child.
Would you like to say anything else in conclusion?
Everyone should decide for themselves what they do and what they don’t do. I think it’s absolutely outrageous to try to force people to do something here. How can my child infect other people so dangerously when they’ve all been vaccinated 100 times? Yesterday, I noticed once again how much pressure there is from doctors, society and politicians.
How can it be that a doctor won’t continue to treat a mother and her child if they don’t go along with everything? My feeling is that they resort to such measures because they want to make a profit and earn money; otherwise, they would take a different approach.
Vaccinations are really about herd immunity; vaccinations help to prevent major epidemics from breaking out again. You yourself say: how can my child become infected when so many others are vaccinated? But that wouldn’t be the case if everyone decided the same way you did. How do you deal with your responsibility to society as a whole?
As I said, it’s my opinion that everyone has to decide for themselves. The human body should be able to build up a good immune system; that’s important. We have to stop excluding and pigeonholing the unvaccinated; that’s not right. It doesn’t make us bad people. I’ve always rubbed people up the wrong way, at school and at work, I’m used to it, but what’s happening now is something I can’t just accept. I found it inhumane.
