“Measles cases in England and Wales rose by 36% in 2008, figures show…
“Professor David Salisbury, director of immunisation at the Department of Health, said it was “irresponsible” for parents not to have their children vaccinated.
He said: “I think it’s irrational, I think it’s putting children’s lives at risk. I can see no shred of benefit.
“There is no evidence that having vaccines separately is better. There are good reasons why it’s worse.”
Professor Steve Field, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, said confidence in the MMR vaccine was returning but it was vital that parents made sure all their children had received both doses.
“Measles is a sinister and nasty illness and shouldn’t be taken lightly.”
For anyone who thinks that it is cool and trendy and somehow “alternative” or even “mystical” to avoid the MMR vaccine have a look at Ben Goldacre’s recent forray into the subject.
Some of the transcript of the broadcast he is writing about is available here and the comments after this blog are worth reading to get an idea of the different points of view, and where they come from.
3 Comments
vaccination of children is like mickey mouse putting on the sorcerer’s hat in the fantasia cartoon. the fantasy of eradicating diseases by sticking them into children is a scary one. there is no possible way we can know the full extent of the effects of putting these viral agents into our bodies. Long term studies have never been done and there is plenty of evidence suggesting all kinds of damage resulting from these shots in the short term alone. We are messing around with levels of biology that are far too complex and unknown to be justifiable, unless someone is sick… then i believe playing god is justifiable, maybe… but to mess around with the immune system of a small child???? just doesn’t feel right to me as a parent who daily shelters my children from harm, and dangerous chemicals, pollution, etc… the united states has paid out a billion dollars in damages for the side effects of vaccinations, including death… and that is after they fought in court to avoid paying!!!
Thanks Jacob Your comment just seems to be a repeat of the misinformed views and scaremongering of Jeni Barnett that Ben Goldacre writes about. Id encourage you to read his report and the forums that follow the links he supplies carefully; the views you express are misinformed- they stem back to the media MMR scam which originated in the now discredited study by Wakefield. Not vaccinating children is ignorant and putting children’s lives at risk. You are right that there are many things we do not know: but what we do know is, MMR is safe, it has been successful at significantly reducing many serious and life-threatening childhood diseases. Unfortunately, you are merely repeating some of the more ignorant aspects of post-modern culture, painitng science as the bogey-man out to kill us when, for all its flaws, many of us- perhaps me, perhaps you yourself- would not be alive without it.
For me as a father of two this is actually a fairly easy decision. There is a very clear and measurable risk associated with not having my kids vaccinated. There is very poorly argued case and no clearly identified risk with MMR. Perhaps the risk is there but the wide use of MMR and so far poor evidence for real problems leads me to suggest that the right choice for my kids and our community is to go ahead with vaccination.
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