MMR scandal shows danger of false rumour

YOUR letter contributor, Karen Jacob starts her piece by stating that she is not an “Anti-Vaxxer” then goes on to list all the reasons why she clearly is. Regrettably, being a retired nurse confers no expertise in the field of immunology, much as the average garage mechanic knows nothing of the machinations of Formula One.

She appears to have fallen into the trap of assuming that the vaccine in question has been developed from a clean sheet of paper starting in March 2020, when in fact the buildup has taken place over decades. Medicinal advances keep moving along, always with a backward glance at previous discoveries. The fact that caution has been expressed

does not automatically infer a problem.

Certain allergies have been flagged up as potential issues, but then, if one peanut can kill somebody, there is always a quantifiable risk in any activity that involves ingestion. The risks of Covid infection are still being discovered, and there is no doubt that doing nothing is not an option.

There has been much made of the misinterpretation re “freedom from litigation”. Nobody would be the least interested in developing anything if the customer (in this case the Government) begins any kind of transaction with the threat of being dragged through the courts. But the end user – the public – has a redress in our law courts guaranteed in our constitution. No one can stop anyone from commencing litigation in this country.

This pandemic will not fade in the background with the majority of the population running scared of a perfectly safe vaccine due to scaremongering. I will be taking one as soon as it becomes available, and I urge everyone else to do the same. There is a pressing need for the majority to take approved vaccines. We did not defeat smallpox and polio by spreading false rumours, but we came very close to re-introducing measles by the lies concerning MMR. Let’s not go there again.

Alan Jeffery Littlehempston

Totnes