Opposition to Vaccination and Immunisation the UK Experience - from Smallpox to MMR

Abstract

Immunisation is a key public health intervention with protection from direct and/or indirect (herd) immunity: this is directly related to vaccine uptake rates, and anything therefore that interferes with uptake, including opposition to vaccination by individuals, has potentially serious consequences for the control of specific vaccine preventable infections (VPIs). The UK has a history of opposition by minority groups to smallpox, whooping cough and measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination, which this paper will review, as it is believed that an understanding of their causes has implications for any VPI disease control through current and future universal immunisation programmes.

Claiming Credibility in Online Comments: Popular Debate Surrounding the COVID-19 Vaccine

“…In all of this, however, the very real difficulties of communicating complex information to the general public should not be underestimated. In his overview of the opposition to vaccination over the last two hundred years, Baxter [2] commented that "the complexity of the arguments involved in universal prophylactic vaccination programmes" frequently made it hard for health authorities to convey the benefits of vaccines to the general public. Discussing earlier controversies, he points out that "neither protection nor adverse events around pertussis or MMR could easily be discussed in the usual three minutes news slot".…”

“…Research on issues such as infectious disease, vaccination, genetically modified food or climate change generates massive amounts of data and relies on increasingly sophisticated subject knowledge and statistical analysis for interpretation, so that strong scientific literacy skills may be needed to discern important trends or evaluate speculative ideas. The abundant coverage of scientific topics in the media of all kinds means that people are constantly being bombarded with information about health, disease, diet, climate and so on, and although much of this reporting may be accurate, it is very likely that large sectors of the public lack the background needed to evaluate the kind of claims made and what they mean for the average person [1,2]. If we add to this the massive proliferation of user-generated comments, misinformation and disinformation on social media, the situation becomes even more confusing.…”

Bazı Batı ülkelerinde çocukluk çağı aşıları hakkındaki yakın dönemli yasal düzenlemeler

“…O dönemki aşı karşıtı yayınlarda en çok vurgulanan savlar aşılanmamanın zararının sadece uygulamayı kabul etmeyen kişiye olacağı ve aşının taşıdığı ölüm riski olmuştur. 9 Günümüzde çocuklarına aşı yapılmasına karşı çıkan ebeveynlerin öne sürdüğü başlıca gerekçeler dini sebepler, kişisel inanışlar veya felsefi gerekçeler, güvenlik endişeleri ve sağlık çalışanlarından daha çok bilgi alma arzusudur. 10…”

Informed Consent in Obligatory Vaccinations?

“…An ideal situation exists when parents, after being informed on the benefits/risks of vaccinations, provide a voluntary informed consent for the proposed intervention and sign proper forms stating their willingness to undergo the procedure. However, the popularity of anti-vaccine movements, parents’ reluctance to vaccinate children, and epidemic outbreaks have forced individual countries to introduce mechanisms that impose a vaccination obligation [15]. Although the first premise for initiating the vaccination procedure should be, and is, informed consent; for obligatory vaccinations, we come across a paradoxical situation where parents/guardians of children who are to be vaccinated need to sign an informed consent form despite a vaccination obligation [16].…”