London measles epidemic?

[Naughtyhippo]

Well it seems to have taken just under 2 months to go from this story, to this one and this one.

In case people start to blame immigration* for the lack of take up of the vaccinations, the borough of Kensington and Chelsea has a take up of the MMR of 39%. 39%!

Do we really have to wait until hordes of parents are busy typing up websites of 'My child is deaf', 'My child has encephalitis', 'My child was born disabled and with heart defects as I caught measles when I was pregnant' or the awful 'My child is dead', before all the useless guff about what the MMR 'did' to children is ignored? Why do anacdotes trump science?

*anyway, aren't all these immigrants supposed to be here to leach off the free health care? Oh wait, I forgot, bigotry doesn't have self-consistent logic.

 

[Ivor the Engineer]

The first story is dated 2004.

The second story is dated 2007.

 

[Ivor the Engineer]

<snip>

Why do anacdotes trump science?

<snip>

Because anecdotes are tangible, but science talks about risk.

In general, people suck at estimating risk or putting it in context.

 

[Naughtyhippo]

The first story is dated 2004.

The second story is dated 2007.

damn. Thanks Ivor.

 

[soylent]

A whole generation has never even seen a measles epidemic. Call me cynical but it's probably better if we have one soon before the unvaccinated population grows too large and the scale of the inevitable outbreak becomes too horrible; preferably in the industrialized world so that it's hard to ignore.