Section 5: Media Epidemics
MMR
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MMR is a vaccine which immunises against three diseases: Measles, Mumps and Rubella. These diseases are all serious and can lead to long term illness, impairment and even death. Before widespread vaccines, there were frequent epidemics of these diseases, and they were a major cause of childhood morbidity and mortality.
Vaccination means that people are immune to the diseases, and therefore epidemics are prevented. There are two stages to the MMR vaccination. The first injection is given when the child is around 13 months old and the second vaccine just before they start school. The vaccine has a high success rate, and after both injections, only 1% of children are still susceptible to any of the diseases.
There has been a great amount of media coverage about MMR in the past few years. What follows on this page is an outline of the debate surrounding the MMR vaccination (first the argument against and then the argument for), and then a discussion of the role the media played in this debate and the consequences of this.
In 1998, a research paper was published in a leading medical journal 'The Lancet' which suggested that there may be a link between the MMR jab, bowel disease and autism. Autism is a developmental disorder which means that people may find it difficult to communicate and interact with other people.
This was based on a study of 12 children. The characteristics of these children were:
- all of the children had symptoms associated with bowel disease;
- 8 of the children's parents said that they had first noticed the behavioural symptoms associated with autism (such as an inability to communicate and getting stressed in social situations) immediately after the child had had the MMR vaccination;
- 1 of the children's parents said they had noticed the behaviour after the child had measles;
- 1of the children's parents said they had noticed the behaviour after the childhad an ear infection.
From this, the researchers hypothesised that the MMR vaccine may lead to bowel disease and autism. Various medical and scientific tests were carried out on the children, but no causal link was found. In fact the Lancet paper contains the following statement:
“We did not prove any association between measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine and the syndrome described.” However, the authors suggest that “further investigations are needed to examine this syndrome and its possible relation this vaccine”.
Despite there being no proven causal link, this paper led to a press conference held by the researchers during which they suggested that the combined MMR vaccine was not safe and that individual vaccines are safer. This press conference, which involved giving out a video to journalists highlighting the dangers of the MMR vaccine, kick started a major media frenzy covering the MMR debate.
To see further details of the argument against MMR see:
Despite the concerns raised by the 1998 research, the government continued to offer only the combined MMR vaccine on the NHS, stating that it was perfectly safe, and was, in fact, more successful than the single vaccines. The government also started a major health campaign to reassure parents of the safety of the MMR vaccine.
The official main argument is that even if there is a risk of side effects with MMR, these are tiny in comparison with the risk of being unvaccinated.
Despite the mass concern following the press conference after the Lancet paper was published, many people have pointed to the quote above as evidence that the research doesn't actually find any link between MMR and autism.
In 1999 a further study was published. This one was a much bigger study, looking at the clinical records of about 500 children with autism who were born between 1979 and 1999. This study found no link between autism and MMR.
This study's findings suggest that the link in the 1998 paper which was based on parents who reported autism behaviour after MMR is not causal (i.e. MMR doesn't cause autism). Instead, it suggests that the apparent relationship is merely due to a coincidence that the behavioural symptoms of autism tend to first be noticed at around about the same time as when children in the UK are vaccinated with MMR.
The main researcher who carried out the 1998 study has also been criticised, as he was being paid by lawyers working for parents who suspected that MMR had caused autism in their children.
Some people argue that if there is any concern then surely the single vaccine would be better. However the WHO advises that the single vaccines shouldn't be given as this leaves the child unvaccinated for a longer time. In addition to this, the single vaccines are not licensed in the UK, which means that their safety has not been tested.
For more information on the argument for MMR vaccination see the following sites:
For a review of both sides of the debate see:
Despite the fact that the 1998 study in the Lancet didn't show any conclusive causal link between MMR and autism, merely an association which may just be conincidential, the media coverage of this link could have easily led you to believe that the study found a conclusive, causal link.
According to research carried out at Cardiff University, there were over 280 reports on MMR in one month in 2002 alone. This reporting followed the publication of a paper written by the same researcher who wrote the 1998 paper, criticising the government for saying that MMR was safe.
Despite the fact that there are many studies saying MMR is safe and very few studies saying it isn't (mainly from the same person), only half of TV reports presented this side of the argument, and when they did, it was in addition to the argument against MMR.
Because of this unbalanced reporting, many people believe that the argument against MMR is stronger than it actually is. In May 2003, the New Scientist magazine reported that over half the UK public believe that medical professionals are split down the middle in relation to the MMR debate (i.e. half support MMR and half are against MMR), when in fact most support MMR.
This has caused massive panic amongst parents who are afraid that they are putting their child at risk by vaccinating them with the MMR vaccine. As the single vaccines aren't approved for use by the NHS, this is the only vaccine available without paying for private vaccines. It has also resulted in parents of autistic children feeling guilty for having vaccinated their children as they are led to believe that this is the cause of their child's disorder.
The coverage of the debate in the media has now, by 2004, switched from being intensely against MMR, to supporting the jab and being critical of the researchers who produced the 1998 report (for example, see this Channel 4 site).
This is confusing and parents are left not knowing what is best, and doubting the advice of their doctor. As a result, the number of children who have been vaccinated has fallen.
For further discussion of the media coverage of the MMR debate, see:
The consequence of the fear over the MMR jab, fuelled by the media is that the number of children vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella has fallen. This has led to fears that there may be measles and mumps epidemics. In fact, in August 2004 there was an outbreak of measles in South Wales and 4 children ended up in hospital.
