The Press: Vaccination scaremongering

See also You should know, you're a medic: Is the MMR vaccine safe? Vaccine scaremongering is on the increase. The problem is that more people experience vaccine side effects if mass vaccination programs are in place, even though this often leads to a very small incidence of potentially life threatening diseases. This creates the ideal environment for vaccine scare stories to flourish. The link between the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism reported in 199812 has triggered an unrelenting stream of stories raising concerns over vaccine safety. These panic stories persist despite assurances that MMR is safe.38 In April this year, for example, the Mail on Sunday reported “a new link between MMR and autism”9 based on one study which found measles in the bowels of 24 autistic children, even though the study was deemed “uninterpretable” by the Department of Health. The new meningitis C vaccine is the most recent victim of media reports about vaccine side effects. …