In the UK there’s a growing problem with measles outbreaks.
This is traceable to the fraudulent work of Dr Andrew Wakefield and his attempt to manufacture a link between autism and the MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella) vaccine. Even after being thoroughly debunked, this “vaccines cause autism” nonsense is still out there and has caused a huge drop-off in the rates of child vaccination.
It’s shaping up to be a serious public health issue, largely because of the media coverage given to the likes of misguided souls like Jeni Barnett and Jenny McCarthy.
But it’s just possible that the tide is beginning to turn.
Some real science has finally had some decent broadcast coverage. Enter Dr Ben Goldacre, who made the facts clear in this great piece on ITV1.
Yay for real science!
1 comments:
it's hard to believe that a media outlet would let someone spout such refuted rubish on their show in this day and age. i remember the denmark study being published a while ago, and the medical community widely accepted that MMR was safe.
we had a measles outbreak in bendigo in 2003 (or about then), to which i ran a massive vaccination program at LTU for young people aged between 18-30 years - those who may have fallen in the "vaccination gap".. even i had a booster...
hopefully common sense will prevail.
on a side note though; we also have a problem at the moment with whooping cough and people over the age of 35-40 whose immunity has waned and are now exposing infants when in close contact... so people, get your boosters!!!
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