Schwartz – current MMR uptake in the UK hovers around 85% for England and Wales, 91% for Scotland and Northern Ireland. The herd immunity threshold is quoted as 95%.

I am fed up with the autism and vaccines controversy. It’s just so stupid that people are still pushing such a flawed notion.

I agree that Wakefield is culpable for much of this, but agree that there are others to blame too. However I think the Blairs were entitled not to discuss what they chose for their son.

I agree with Schwartz. It is giving Wakefield too much credit to think that he could have had such an influence. What about the lawyers who solicited his services? What about the media who lapped up “his” theory? What about the Blairs who wanted some privacy for Leo? What about doctors/clinics who were all too willing to sell the single MMRs?

“SA: How infectious is measles?

JS: It’s the most highly infectious virus there is. If you have 100 unvaccinated people in a room and a person with measles walks in and coughs, 90 people or more will get measles. It’s just very, very infectious. Coughing will aersolize the virus.”

The plot.

Greedy and amoral people decide it’s fun and/or profitable to attack vaccine programs and then a pack of dimwits from around the world, with Internet access, and blessed with half of a poor understanding of public health, developmental psychobiology, genetics and vaccinology and virology, start pontificating and speculating upon speculation on what vaccines just MIGHT do to imagined super sensitive babies, if combined with this or that (synergistically, of course, because “synergistic” sounds so faux smart and all) either that they insiste that it’s all a part of a huge international conspiracy to decimate the population so all the data coming from anyone they disagree with must be bad and everyone in charge of public health is more stupidder then they are, and are in the pocket of Big Pharma…. and in the end the makers of baby sized coffins especially have a huge windfall as babies and other vulnerable people start dying of vaccine preventable diseases.

Jenny McCarthy can play Deedee Imus!! Jim Carrey can play Mark Blaxill!!

I’m curious, do you really believe Wakefield is the sole nexus of this? If the common anti-wakefield conspiracy theory is to be believed, he was just a puppethead paid to deliver a message for others. That would indicate many other forces at play.

I’m also curious if you happen to know the herd immunity number for measles? I know it’s different for different diseases. Last I read, the vaccination rate in the US had dropped from 99% to 97.5% for MMR. I don’t know what the UK numbers are.