Thread by @louiseckenny

I’m followed by a lot of mums and dads and soon to be mums and dads so on the vaccine issue I will say this and leave it here: as a young medical student I witnessed a young child die of measles meningitis. A horrific death that has stayed with me. (1)

The consultant tried to comfort the shattered team by sharing his certain belief that- and I quote- ‘measles will soon be like smallpox- there is an effective & safe vaccine & soon no child will ever die like this’ This was the early 1990’s.
And then Andrew Wakefield happened (2)

His research has been utterly discredited from every angle & over many, many years. The MMR vaccine saves lives. It is completely safe. There are sick children in Ireland and the U.K. tonight at risk of dying from a disease that is completely preventable & should be history (3)

Worse- there is contagion & now all vaccines are subject to second guessing by the ill informed. #HPVvaccine could eradicate cervical cancer (and others) within two generations but conspiracy theorists are undoing decades of investment & work and delaying humanity’s progress (4)

Vaccines work. They save lives. My kids- who are more precious to me than life itself- have been vaccinated with everything, at every opportunity, and on schedule. They will save lives - simply because they will never be the vector of disease that kills another child (5)

So- if you really love your kids- trust me and the overwhelming majority of experts- and vaccinate them. If you want to be a good global citizen- get vaccinated. And if you don’t believe me and don’t agree- don’t @ me unless you have a medical degree, a PhD and skin in the game.