| Increasing numbers of concerned parents in the UK are rebelling against MMR as theonly 'safe' vaccination alternative for their children. According to the results of a recent Guardian/ICM opinion poll (1), some 75 per cent of parents interviewed would like the UK Government to provide free separate measles, mumps and rubella vaccinations for their children. The overall results of the poll suggest that all the recent efforts made by the Government have had little or no impact in reducing popular anxiety over this matter. Only 20 per cent of those included in the survey said they would "trust a lot" the advice given by politicians and their officials, with a worrying 30 per cent disregarding it altogether. So is this a new crisis of trust in the governing bodies or are we facing the same problems over and over again? With the number of measles cases rising not only in the UK but in other European countries such as Germany - in some incidents to the point of epidemic clusters - we should all be reminded of the potential horrors of the infections being prevented by mass vaccination: a wider incidence of diseases striking the population, in some cases with potentially fatal results. |
