As the measles outbreak grows in Alberta, some parents feel the tension. They are trying to keep children safe and navigate with delicate vaccine conversations with friends and family, whether they are causing or not.
Jillian Carter lives in Lethbridge, where the vaccination rate for children which were seven last year vary from 47 percent in the 80 percent surrounded county within the city.
His first child is an eight -week baby who is too young to be vaccinated. Then Carter leaves her at home when she buys edible, she leaves less, covers her daughter’s cube seat when she enters a building and, in general, avoids knowing new people socially.
“It makes it difficult to branch like other communities, knowing that your child’s safety is at risk when it does not know where other people are standing. [on vaccines]”She said.
“You find your people and you know your people. But it is also something that gives you some fear to leave the house with a newborn.”
The measles was eradicated in Canada, but returned after vaccination rates fell. In Alberta, the outbreaks began in March and Since then it has grown up to 505 cases.
Highly contagious disease causes fever and cough, then an eruption. This can normally be handled at home, but in some cases, it brings serious complications such as ear infections, pneumonia and encephalitis, which can cause lasting brain damage.
From this week, Alberta had a child with measles in intensive care.
CBC News stopped in a popular patio in Henderson Lake in Lethbridge recently to talk to parents about how this is already affecting their families.
Moms just ‘Don’t talk about that’
Carter’s friend, Mackenzie Sailer, said that from the Covid-19 pandemic, vaccines have become loaded.
“We really don’t talk about that,” Sailer said. “It’s like the three things you don’t mention at the table, of course. [Religion, politics]You can add vaccines to the list. “
Sailer’s children are three years old and one. For her, vaccines are not in black and white. He obtained both children’s standard immunizations, including measles, but not the COVID-19 vaccine.
Because it is newer than others, she has less confidence in it. But she also feels the tension around this conversation.
“It’s hard because we are living in a society where there is a trial, right? But I have always been very open to respond and talk about it and not judge in any way.”
Studies on vaccine suggest that there are often multiple factors that shape the decision of the parents, including the pressure of the classmates inside and outside the religious communities, the concerns about the ingredients of vaccines and the fear of possible side effects.
Shannon Vandenberg, a public health nurse and professor at the University of Lethbridge, grew up in the Dutch renovated Christian community in a small town in southern Alberta. He studied vaccine vaccine while obtaining his mastery in 2013.
She also has three children in a local school. They are vaccinated but they have classmates who are not, and she sees the tension.
“You can create cracks in families. I see that within my own family,” he said.
CBC News approached Vandenberg to help bring context after talking with parents in the recreation courtyard that do not immunize.
In the park, a mother said she did not vaccinate her children and that no one in her friend and circles of faith does it because they trust God for protection. But she didn’t want to talk about it publicly.
Another father, Caitlin Hepner, was willing to share. She is a mother of four children who said she does not trust vaccines and also avoids talking about it, especially after receiving hate messages towards her children on social networks.
Why a mother became skeptical
“I am in favor of natural immunity with my children, and yes, I only try to facilitate conversation if someone wants to have it. Otherwise, it simply makes sense to discuss,” he said, also relieving this conversation.
She talked about the challenges and then shared her own story when asked. She said her distrust began before the pandemic. Eight years ago, she vaccinated her first child when he was one. At that time, his language advanced well. I was even starting to say words like “backpack.”
Then, inexplicably, her speech retreated to the point that she could no longer understand it, and the regression began when she vaccinated. When he mentioned it with his family doctor and others, he felt they didn’t take him seriously.
“They definitely rule it out,” he said. “They simply tell me: ‘Well, many children go to their own rhythm.'”
“I am with my children every day. I know if they are progressing or backing; it was the mother’s intuition. But you are fighting doctors, they are” educated “as they go to school.”
Vandenberg said that hepner’s concern for side effects or injuries is not uncommon among those who hesitate to vaccinate.
A challenge is that the MMR vaccine (for measles, paper and rubella) is generally administered to age, just at the time when this type of regressions and changes in development can begin to appear naturally, he said.
‘Highly studied vaccine’
When something happens at the same time, it seems that one caused the other. But it could be a coincidence. Health scientists trust studies involving a much larger population to know with certainty, and she said that in many great studies of children around the world, the correlation between the MMR vaccine and delays in development, such as autism, has been refuted.
“If Google a vaccine injury, you will get all kinds of things,” Vandenberg said. “We know the damage that someone like Jenny McCarthy has done with the MMR vaccine, right? Claiming that caused autism in his son. That has been refuted innumerable times in many big studies. But there are still people who cling to that. “
The most reliable information comes from the analysis of multiple large studies. The Cochrane library, a worldwide profit association of health scientists, published a literature review in 2020 that He analyzed 87 studies that sought evidence of negative side effects of the MMR vaccine. He found no association between the MMR vaccine and the cognitive delay, which would include speech regression.
That review found a very small risk of a fever -related seizure after vaccination. But that risk was much less than the risk of seizures related to fever that leads to get measles.
“This has been a very studied vaccine. It is incredibly well studied and I have no doubt about its safety,” said Dr. Lynora Saxinger, a specialist in infection diseases at Alberta University.
Have better conversations
For hepner, she said she is not against Western medicine. If a woman needs a caesarean section, it is surprising that a doctor can intervene and save a life. But she tends to look for other options before filling a recipe.
He would like to feel his insight and participation.
“They seem to think that because it is sometimes difficult to understand the medical language that we cannot solve that … read a medical study. But we are people who are so qualified to learn these things,” he said.
“People are very divided due to medical choices, and I think it’s absolutely crazy. They are vaccinated not vaccinated,” he said. “People begin to question their lack of integrity or their character or knowledge, all depending on their medical choices.”
Vandenberg believes that better conversations can happen. She says that public health nurses can be a good resource, especially when they take the time to listen and generate trust with parents in multiple conversations.
“I found a really pleasant moment to do this often went home visits, when we were going to visit the moms after they had babies, at home. We always mentioned, Oh, are you planning to immunize?”
“If they said no, [then we’d say]’Ok, tell me a little more about that’. Building a relationship helps, right? They feel they can call and the door is open. “
Get time to generate trust
But public health nurses have time for that today?
“That is the challenge,” Vandenberg said. “The workload has increased in public health programs; the need has increased. Have we seen that resources also increase? I would not say. Then you are right, we do not always have time.”
In the Patio de Recreo, Carter and Sailer said they would also like to be able to have better conversations with other parents.
Carter said he firmly feels that everyone should have the right to decide what to do with their own bodies. But people also need good access to education, he said. With luck, people have a family doctor in which they can trust and even request that studies read if they want that.
As for Sailer, he emphasized the idea of accepting more views.
“I think people need to have a more open mind in all things,” he said.
“There are so many people who are white and black about it, and you cannot get involved with people who do not have the same belief system as you … Actually, that is not sustainable,” he said. “We are all different, and we will all have different opinions, and that’s fine. If you have respect for everyone around you, I think the conversations would be much easier.”
