UK battles anti-vax misinformation after child's death

UK battles anti-vax misinformation after child's death

A child's death from measles in Britain has sparked calls from officials urging parents to get their children vaccinated

A child's death from measles has sparked urgent calls from British public health officials to get children vaccinated, as the UK faces an onslaught of misinformation on social media, much of it from the United States.

Measles is a highly infectious disease that can cause serious complications. It is preventable through double MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) jabs in early childhood.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting on July 14 confirmed to parliament that a child had died in the UK of measles. 

No details have been released, but The Sunday Times and Liverpool Echo newspapers reported the child had been severely ill with measles and other serious health problems in Alder Hey hospital in the northwestern city. 

Anti-vaxxers quickly posted unconfirmed claims about the death on social media.

One British influencer, Ellie Grey, who has more than 200,000 followers on Instagram, posted a video denying the child died from measles.

"Measles isn't this deadly disease... it's not dangerous," she said.

Grey criticised Alder Hey for posting a video "really, really pushing and manipulating parents into getting the MMR vaccine".

Her video was reposted by another British influencer, Kate Shemirani, a struck-off ex-nurse who posts health conspiracy theories.

"No vaccine has ever been proven safe and no vaccine has ever been proven effective," Shemirani claimed falsely.

Liverpool's public health chief Matthew Ashton attacked those "spreading misinformation and disinformation about childhood immunisations" in the Echo newspaper, saying "they need to take a very long, hard look at themselves."

"For those of you that don't know, measles is a really nasty virus," he said in a video, adding that the jab is a way of "protecting yourself and your loved ones".

Alder Hey said it has treated 17 children with measles since June.

It posted a video in which a paediatric infectious diseases consultant, Andrew McArdle, addresses measles "myths", including that the MMR jab causes autism.

This false claim comes from a debunked 1998 study by a British doctor, Andrew Wakefield, who was later struck off.

But it sparked an international slump in vaccinations.

- 'Lingering questions' -

Benjamin Kasstan-Dabush, a medical anthropologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told AFP there are still "lingering questions around the Wakefield era".

He talked to parents who had delayed vaccinating their children, finding reasons included life events and difficulty getting health appointments, but also misinformation.

"We're obviously talking about a different generation of parents, who might be engaging with that Wakefield legacy through social media, through the internet, and of course through Kennedy," he said.

US President Donald Trump appointed Robert F. Kennedy Jr as health secretary despite his promotion of anti-vaccine conspiracy theories. 

Kennedy fired all 17 experts on a key vaccine advisory panel and appointed a scientist who warned against Covid jabs.

In the United States, "misinformation is being produced in the highest echelons of the Trump administration", which "circulates across the internet", Kasstan-Dabush said.

In a sign of how narratives spread, a Telegram group airing conspiracies called Liverpool TPR, which has around 2,000 members, regularly posts links to anti-vaccine group Children's Health Defense once chaired by Kennedy.

In the past few weeks the UK Health Security Agency has amplified its social media coverage on vaccinations, a spokesman said.

In a video in response to the reported death, Vanessa Saliba, a consultant epidemiologist, explained the MMR jab protects others, including those "receiving treatment like chemotherapy that can weaken or wipe out their immunity".

Take-up of the MMR jab needs to be 95 percent for herd immunity, according to the World Health Organisation. The UK has never hit this target.

In Liverpool, uptake for both doses is only around 74 percent and below 50 percent in some areas, according to Ashton, while the UK rate is 84 percent.

After Wakefield's autism claims, confirmed measles cases topped 2,000 in England and Wales in 2012 before dropping. But last year, cases soared again.

The same trend is happening in other countries.

Europe last year reported the highest number of cases in over 25 years; the United States has recorded its worst measles epidemic in over 30 years.

Canada, which officially eradicated measles in 1998, has registered more than 3,500 cases this year. 

An Ontario infectious diseases doctor, Alon Vaisman, told AFP: "You're fighting against the wall of disinformation and lies."

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Originally published as UK battles anti-vax misinformation after child's death