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| Measles is the monster we never quite killed off | Measles is the monster we never quite killed off |
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| Not-quite-dead is one of the crappiest clichés in horror movies. The chaste and plucky heroine has laid the bad guy out cold, and then rather than sawing through his neck with a handy breadknife or pulping his skull with the nearest brick, she just wanders off complacently, leaving the bad guy to rise again and jump her from behind. How contrived, how boring. What kind of moron hands out second chances to the inhuman force that wants to kill them? | Not-quite-dead is one of the crappiest clichés in horror movies. The chaste and plucky heroine has laid the bad guy out cold, and then rather than sawing through his neck with a handy breadknife or pulping his skull with the nearest brick, she just wanders off complacently, leaving the bad guy to rise again and jump her from behind. How contrived, how boring. What kind of moron hands out second chances to the inhuman force that wants to kill them? |
| Well, we did. Up until 1998, measles looked like it was thoroughly defeatable. There were only 56 confirmed cases of the disease in England and Wales that year. Tragically, 1998 was also the year in which Andrew Wakefield (he was a doctor then; he isn't any more) claimed there was a link between the MMR vaccine and the development of autism in children. | Well, we did. Up until 1998, measles looked like it was thoroughly defeatable. There were only 56 confirmed cases of the disease in England and Wales that year. Tragically, 1998 was also the year in which Andrew Wakefield (he was a doctor then; he isn't any more) claimed there was a link between the MMR vaccine and the development of autism in children. |
| Twelve years later, the Lancet retracted Wakefield's paper and the journal's editor described the research as "utterly false". The GMC struck Wakefield from the register after finding that he had "abused his position of trust" by conducting invasive and unethical procedures on children, and committed "multiple separate instances of serious professional misconduct". | Twelve years later, the Lancet retracted Wakefield's paper and the journal's editor described the research as "utterly false". The GMC struck Wakefield from the register after finding that he had "abused his position of trust" by conducting invasive and unethical procedures on children, and committed "multiple separate instances of serious professional misconduct". |
| A year after that, investigative journalist Brian Deer revealed that before Wakefield even started his notorious research, the then-doctor had been contracted (confidentially and lucratively) to work on a lawsuit that sought to demonstrate the existence of a brain-bowel syndrome. Now, denuded of both title and credibility, Wakefield can be found hawking a reality show that recycles the same discredited connections between the digestive tract and autistic spectrum disorders. | A year after that, investigative journalist Brian Deer revealed that before Wakefield even started his notorious research, the then-doctor had been contracted (confidentially and lucratively) to work on a lawsuit that sought to demonstrate the existence of a brain-bowel syndrome. Now, denuded of both title and credibility, Wakefield can be found hawking a reality show that recycles the same discredited connections between the digestive tract and autistic spectrum disorders. |
| Those 12 years gave the measles monster all the time it needed to regroup. Take-up of the MMR, which has always been relatively low in the most deprived areas, started to fall among the well-off too, and though vaccination rates recovered to reach 91% last year, that's still short of the 95% needed to create herd immunity. | Those 12 years gave the measles monster all the time it needed to regroup. Take-up of the MMR, which has always been relatively low in the most deprived areas, started to fall among the well-off too, and though vaccination rates recovered to reach 91% last year, that's still short of the 95% needed to create herd immunity. |
| The awful effects of Wakefield's claims are only beginning to be seen now. Since 1998, measles cases have increased, sporadically but inexorably, until in 2012 there were 2,030 confirmed cases of measles in England and Wales. That's a 36-fold increase on the pre-scare figure. 2013 will probably be another bumper year for the virus. An outbreak around Swansea has already infected nearly 600, and there's been a case at my children's school, unsurprisingly, since we live in the south west, where uptake was a calamitous 85.4% in 2008. | The awful effects of Wakefield's claims are only beginning to be seen now. Since 1998, measles cases have increased, sporadically but inexorably, until in 2012 there were 2,030 confirmed cases of measles in England and Wales. That's a 36-fold increase on the pre-scare figure. 2013 will probably be another bumper year for the virus. An outbreak around Swansea has already infected nearly 600, and there's been a case at my children's school, unsurprisingly, since we live in the south west, where uptake was a calamitous 85.4% in 2008. |
| So many children suffering from a potentially fatal illness that should barely even exist. There's a powerful temptation to be angry at the parents who left their offspring so exposed, but to feel that way, you have to forget how mortifyingly real the fear was for the minority who opted out. I had my son in 2002, around the point of peak MMR hysteria, and conversation about the "triple jab" was fervent and frequent. I didn't share the worries, but I could see they were sincere. | So many children suffering from a potentially fatal illness that should barely even exist. There's a powerful temptation to be angry at the parents who left their offspring so exposed, but to feel that way, you have to forget how mortifyingly real the fear was for the minority who opted out. I had my son in 2002, around the point of peak MMR hysteria, and conversation about the "triple jab" was fervent and frequent. I didn't share the worries, but I could see they were sincere. |
| One mum fixed me with an earnest look across a playgroup coffee table and told me she knew "three women whose babies turned autistic because of the jab". Did she really? Of course not. But credulous reporting had encouraged the belief. Almost every media outlet in the UK helped to perpetuate the scare, with terrifying headlines and specious first-person accounts from concerned parents. | One mum fixed me with an earnest look across a playgroup coffee table and told me she knew "three women whose babies turned autistic because of the jab". Did she really? Of course not. But credulous reporting had encouraged the belief. Almost every media outlet in the UK helped to perpetuate the scare, with terrifying headlines and specious first-person accounts from concerned parents. |
| In this environment, anyone who had any concern about the neurological development of their child was encouraged to link it to the MMR jab, and anyone who had any doubts at all about letting a nurse stick needles in their baby was given an excuse to stay away from the surgery. These parents may have been wrong, but they weren't wholly without reason. Besides, with measles cases so low, it was easy to forget what the vaccines were protecting us from. | In this environment, anyone who had any concern about the neurological development of their child was encouraged to link it to the MMR jab, and anyone who had any doubts at all about letting a nurse stick needles in their baby was given an excuse to stay away from the surgery. These parents may have been wrong, but they weren't wholly without reason. Besides, with measles cases so low, it was easy to forget what the vaccines were protecting us from. |
| Mumps, measles and rubella sounded almost picturesque. Vintage diseases from the 1950s, something that might be caught and recovered from in time to have a jolly good adventure in short trousers and wool socks. What they actually meant if contracted was pain, death, loss of sight, loss of hearing, infertility, the theft of futures. It was as difficult to imagine as the taste of Spam. These were illnesses that for all practical purposes had ceased to be, so why not skip clinic and do something less stressful instead? | Mumps, measles and rubella sounded almost picturesque. Vintage diseases from the 1950s, something that might be caught and recovered from in time to have a jolly good adventure in short trousers and wool socks. What they actually meant if contracted was pain, death, loss of sight, loss of hearing, infertility, the theft of futures. It was as difficult to imagine as the taste of Spam. These were illnesses that for all practical purposes had ceased to be, so why not skip clinic and do something less stressful instead? |
| The Swansea outbreak tells us why: because a monster like measles is never really dead, only allayed. To keep it down, you have to keep on attacking without rest. About 1,200 people have received the MMR at emergency clinics in South Wales, and that's a start. Now we just need everyone else who is either at risk themselves or has children in danger to remember it's measles, not MMR, that we should have been afraid of all along. | |
| • This article was amended on 8 April 2013. The last paragraph did say that 12,000 people had received the MMR jab at emergency clinics in South Wales. This has been corrected to 1,200 |