FEAT DAILY NEWSLETTER
Sacramento, California http://www.feat.org
December 21, 2001
News Morgue Search www.feat.org/search/news.asp
Front Page in UK: MMR Gag Angers Health Officials
No 10 blocks ministers from saying if their children have
been vaccinated
[This flap is reminiscent of the time before the US
elections when the media was dogging then candidate George Bush about he
alleged drug use decades ago. Bush also
insisted then it was a private matter and refused to disclose. But that’s where the comparison ends. This may be whimsical enough to make the US
evening news. Thanks to Richard Miles. –LS
By Rosemary Bennett, Financial Times; Dec 21, 2001.] http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=011221000203&query
=mmr#docAnchor011221000203 <- -
Address ends here.
Downing Street has enraged health department officials by
forbidding ministers from disclosing if their children have been given the controversial
MMR vaccine.
The officials say the gagging order has undermined efforts
to restore public confidence in the mumps, measles and rubella triple jab.
There have been suggestions that the triple vaccine could be linked to autism
and bowel disease.
Downing Street ordered ministers last week not to comment
on whether their children had received the vaccine to prevent Tony Blair being
forced to reveal if his 18-month-old son Leo had been inoculated.
They were told to say they did not comment on the health
of their children in order to protect their privacy.
But a senior health official said Downing Street was
guilty of double standards. “Tony Blair often speaks about his children.
Clearly it doesn’t suit him on this occasion and the public is going to wonder
why,” he said.
The prime minister has referred to his children in
speeches and interviews, and his official spokesman provided a blow-by-blow
account of Euan Blair’s post-GCSE celebration last summer when he was arrested
for being drunk and incapable.
However, Downing Street officials said last night they
would not back down; family health matters would remain private.
The gag proved embarrassing for Jacqui Smith, junior
health minister, yesterday as she repeatedly ducked questions about her own
children during a Radio Four interview, although she hinted she had followed
government advice and had them vaccinated.
Yvette Cooper, the public health minister responsible for
the jab, confirmed before Downing Street issued the ban that her two-year-old daughter
had been vaccinated.
Increasing numbers of parents are refusing to give their
children the jab despite repeated assurances from ministers that it is safe.
The latest official figures show only 87 per cent of
children were
vaccinated against the diseases in the year to March
compared with rates of
about 94.5 per cent for diphtheria, tetanus and polio. www.ft.com/healthcare
* * *
Yahoo! News UK: No
10 ‘Gag’ Over MMR Outrages Officials:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/011221/143/cm9v9.html
Health officials are angry at a Number 10 decision to gag
ministers from revealing if their children have been given the MMR vaccine.
Yvette Cooper is the only minister to confirm that her
daughter has had the jab - before the order from Downing Street went out.
Health secretary Alan Milburn has threatened a government
boycott of the BBC’s Today programme after health minister Jacqui Smith was
grilled by John Humphrys - the presenter described her refusal to disclose
whether her children had received the combined vaccine as “holier than thou”.
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