WHAT’S THE STORY?
“SUPERSTITIOUS mumbo jumbo” has cost the UK its measles-free status, Boris Johnson has said.
There were more than 230 confirmed cases of the potentially fatal illness in the first quarter of 2019 after immunisation rates dropped.
In England only 87% of children receive their second dose of the vaccine, putting the rate below the 95% target. The UK has now lost its World Health Organisation (WHO) measles-free status and the spread of “anti-vax” material online is amongst the factors behind the rise, according to Johnson.
WHAT DOES ANTI-VAX MEAN?
THE controversial stance sees parents refuse to have their children undergo routine jags for fear that this will have detrimental side effects. This includes the discredited theory that the combined measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine is a cause of autism. The movement crosses borders and is the subject of dedicated online communities. US actors Jenny McCarthy and Alicia Silverstone are amongst those to have come out against routine medical vaccinations.
WHAT ABOUT SCOTLAND?
FIGURES from June reveal the number of children receiving the MMR vaccine by the age of five remains “very high” at 96.6%.
This is despite a slight dip from 97% across a three month period.
Scotland’s chief medical officer Dr Catherine Calderwood hailed that result, saying: “We have been over our 95% target since 2009, so the level of immunity against measles in particular in Scotland is very high. People seem to be wanting to come forward and have their vaccines done because they understand how important it is.”
WHAT DID THE PM SAY?
IN Cornwall, he said: “People have been listening to that superstitious mumbo jumbo on the internet, all that anti-vax stuff and thinking that the MMR vaccine is a bad idea. That’s wrong. Please get your kids vaccinated.”
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