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I have seen many middle-class manias in my time but none has matched the dangerous frenzy caused by the false accusation that the MMR vaccination causes autism. Normally poor health and low incomes go together. But half the cases in the new measles epidemic are in London, because this is a city not only of great poverty but also with one of the highest concentration of educated parents in the country.
"There are some ideas so wrong that only a very intelligent person could believe in them," said George Orwell. MMR proved his point.
It was clear early on that Andrew Wakefield's link between the vaccine and autism could not hold. The Japanese city of Yokohama replaced MMR vaccinations with single jabs for measles, mumps and rubella. If Wakefield and the conspiracy theorists were right, autism rates should have collapsed. In fact, they went up.
No amount of evidence could change parents' minds, however. I had mothers with senior jobs in the arts, business and finance swearing to me that their children would never be vaccinated. Journalists I once respected joined the frenzy. The parents and reporters had one thing in common: none had a science degree.
Deplore them though I did, I understood why mass hysteria took hold. The MMR panic was the perfect story for an environmentally conscious generation with a knee-jerk suspicion of authority. The lone dissident - Wakefield - was blowing the whistle on an unnatural medicine dreamed up by Frankenstein scientists. He was up against sinister forces - "big government", "big pharma" and "the medical establishment" - that we knew in our casually cynical way were wicked by definition. The more the authorities tried to discredit him, the louder his supporters shouted "cover-up".
Put like this, the MMR panic that gripped my generation of graduates sounds understandable. But there was a dark side to it, darkening by the week. Wakefield did not tell the medical journal that published his theory of a potential conflict of interest. Now it is reported that he manipulated patients' data in the study they helped fund.
Wakefield denies the charge and I hope for his sake he's right. It is one thing to make a mistake, quite another to deliberately mislead. My gullible middle-class friends are not lightly crossed. They will be viciously unforgiving if they find out that they have been conned.
Reader views (8)
when it was time for my son to have the mmr i too was very confused and concerned for my sons health. i did give him the mmr, but unfortunately he did develope severe autism. even though i was convinced his autism had nothing to do with the mmr, when it was time for my daughter to have the mmr i did go for the single jabs, at a cost of about £400.00. I was not prepared to take even a 1% chance if the mmr jab caused autism as it can be devastating. Unfortunatly by the time my daughter was 2 she was also diagnosed with severe autism.I know a lot of parents with autistic children and some have had single jabs and so with the mmr. I believe that the mmr has absolutely nothing to do with autism, but i can fully understand parents who choice not to have it. i believe that the goverment should give parents a choice of the single jabs.
- Mrs Christine Lock, bedfont middlesex
Andy from London, there is no good evidence that mercury in vaccines can trigger autism. If you did a bit of research you would have found out that over the last eight years mercury was removed from most childhood vaccines in the US, and yet autism rates continue to climb.
- Nick, Surrey
"in the developed world measles is not a serious threat to their child's life and life prospects" - oh my god. The disease hasn't suddenly become benevolent. Since 2006 we've started to have deaths because of measles once again, something we should be ashamed about.
- Hugh, Bedfordshire
Sadly the comments on here so far just prove the point of the article, that many credulous people prefer to believe anecodotal rather than clinical evidence. If there was a reputable study that proved any of these links between autism and MMR, mercury, or cat hair, then I'm sure somebody would provide a link wouldn't they?
- Tim, Brighton
Forget Wakefield, he isn't the only claimant that the MMR vaccine can trigger autism.
In fact if you did a bit of research (like probably most of your friends who are against MMR have done) you would have found out, that the extremely toxic heavy metal mercury is (or at least was) common in vaccines as preservative and that's what can trigger autism.
Do a search for thimerosal on google if you want to know more.
Therefore the issue is not so much MMR or single shots, but to make sure any shot is mercury free!
- Andy, London
Keep to the facts. MMR was withdrawn in Japan because it was causing neurological problems in children (sound familiar?). The Japanese lost trust in all vaccinations. During this period the rate of autism went DOWN. Later when single vaccines were introduced and adminiostered simultaneously the rate of autism went UP.
Go figure.
- Bill, Birmingham
It could be that the educated classes have better access to the internet and US news where vaccination is increasingly featuring, they also probably realise that in the developed world measles is not a serious threat to their child's life and life prospects whereas autism is.
- Jules Goldacre, London
All the government had to do was give people a choice and there wouldn't be any danger of a measle epidemic.
- Adrian, Surrey
