As a GP, I don’t get angry with anti-vaxxers, I just give them the facts | Ann Robinson

Ten years after the MMR vaccine was wrongly linked to autism, I still have to explain to parents why measles is a threat

Here’s one anniversary I won’t be celebrating: 10 years ago this week, the Lancet retracted an article published in 1998 that linked the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to autism. The retraction followed a General Medical Council (GMC) ruling that lead author Andrew Wakefield had been dishonest.

After the original paper, and despite the immediate objections raised by the medical community, there was a significant drop in MMR rates in the UK. In my GP surgery, rational people expressed concerns along the lines of “There’s no smoke without fire”, “I’ll wait until my child is older so that I can be sure they’re not autistic”, “My friend’s child was diagnosed with autism a few months after his MMR” and “I’ll get the jabs done privately so they can be given separately”.

Shaming or forcing people to do something that they are scared of is never a good idea

Related: Is the anti-vaccine movement putting lives at risk? – podcast

Continue reading...

from Children | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2v7MEec