Interview 41
Brief Outline: For all immunisations' Her experience of working in Public Health informed her decisions about immunisations. She believed much of the information from the media to be inaccurate and biased.
Background: At time of interview' married, one son, aged 22 months. Parent's occupation' Mother- Ph.D. Student (Public Health), Father- Civil Servant. Ethnic background' White-British.
More about me...
We are lucky to have immunisations available in the UK to prevent these diseases.
We are lucky to have immunisations available in the UK to prevent these diseases.
Believes the media misrepresented the level of risk associated with MMR.
Believes the media misrepresented the level of risk associated with MMR.
And I always find whenever you read anything that you know anything vaguely about in the papers you always realise how many sort of [laughs] how biased it is or that it's coming from a certain angle and certain things aren't ' So I'm not so swayed by stuff in the media.
I think I'm quite lucky at having access to research papers and if I read something in a much more I don't know, reliable, if that's fair, source, then I would be more worried. But even then studies are funded but that's what swung it for me about the MMR was that this guy had a serious conflict of interest. You know, he was representing the parents of children with autism and you can see how it happens. Somebody stakes their career on making a certain point and they get a certain reputation and they can't really back down. So, I think knowing that, knowing that background, that piece of information in itself was enough for me to really dismiss, I think [laughs]. Although I mean it's funny because you have a rational head and then you have your sort of mother head on and so it's not that I got him immunised and didn't worry about it. It was still, I was still looking for signs of [laughs] withdrawing from the world and not wanting affection enough to... which is ridiculous, I knew it was ridiculous but you still sort of do that, you still kind of watch afterwards to see if he's changed. But there was absolutely no sign of that.
Media reports of health studies often misinterpret the level of risk.
Media reports of health studies often misinterpret the level of risk.
She didn't think for too long about MMR because she believed the benefits of immunisation...
She didn't think for too long about MMR because she believed the benefits of immunisation...
So I, you know, I was aware that there's, there's probably all sorts of research out there claiming that, you know, this side-effect and that side effect but every time we take drugs there are side-effects and people do it all the, all the time. And I think there is a little bit of slight unwarranted fear about injections just because of all the publicity and because of the, particularly obviously around MMR.
And actually for that reason I didn't really do any reading or [laughs] I didn't really want to look into it because I knew if you start looking you'll obviously find people who've written a report saying, link, you know, there's a link with autism or other sort of risks. And I knew I was going to do it anyway so there was no point in frightening myself or focusing on sort of tiny risks when actually the, I knew, you know, that the benefits were gong to massively increase that massively over-ride that. So I didn't really, I didn't really think about it too much.
There is no convincing evidence to suggest that MMR is not safe.
There is no convincing evidence to suggest that MMR is not safe.
Again, I think with MMR, just because of all the publicity I was bit more apprehensive about that. But even then I didn't really do much reading because, I think because I'd come from a research background and I know there's actually no that, you know, there are contradictory studies on everything and you've got to take the sort of weight of evidence and the weight of evidence is towards it being safe. And so there's this one very highly publicised study that was claiming these links but, but everything else suggested that it was absolutely fine. And for me the risk of a link with, of him contracting autism was so much smaller than him contracting mumps and him suffering sort of negative impact from that. So it wasn't too difficult a decision.
I think I'm quite lucky at having access to research papers and if I read something in a sort of much more, I don't know, reliable, if that's fair, source, then I would be more worried. But even then studies are funded but, I mean, that's what, that's what swung it for me about the MMR was that this guy had a, a serious conflict of interest. You know, he was representing the parents of children with autism and you can see how it happens. Somebody stakes their career on a certain, making a certain point and they get a certain reputation and they can't really back down. So, I think knowing that, knowing that background, that piece of information in itself was enough for me to really dismiss, I think [laughs]. Although I mean it's funny because you have a rational head and then you have your sort of mother head on and so it's not that I got him immunised and didn't worry about it. It was still, I was still looking for signs of [laughs] withdrawing from the world and not wanting affection enough to, which is ridiculous, I knew it was ridiculous but you still sort of do that, you still kind of watch afterward to see if, if he's changed. But there was absolutely no sign of that.