Measles jab media blitz to persuade parents
10th February 2002

he Department of Health is planning a publicity blitz to persuade parents of the safety of the controversial MMR vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella.

Final details of the campaign have not been agreed, but it is thought likely to involve TV, radio and press adverts by Chief Medical Officer Liam Donaldson, setting out the Government's case for believing MMR to be safe.

Prof Donaldson will send an open letter to clinics and hospitals this week, challenging the claims of Dr Andrew Wakefield that there could be a link between MMR and autism, said a Department spokesman.

And action teams will be created to target parents in areas of low uptake of the jab, persuading them that it is the best way of protecting their children.

The campaign comes amid growing concern that parents' refusal to give their children MMR is creating the risk of a potentially fatal measles epidemic.

A poll in today's News of the World suggested that just 60% of people now believe Government assurances that the inoculation is safe. Coverage must reach 95% in order to create so-called "herd immunity" and prevent outbreaks of the diseases.

The Health Department spokesman said that plans for adverts were not yet finalised, but that the option had been discussed last week and was being seriously considered.

Another proposal that had been mentioned, but had not yet been fully discussed, was a public service broadcast by Prof Donaldson on all terrestrial TV channels. This would be the first such broadcast since the Aids campaign of the 1980s.

In January last year, the Department of Health and the Public Health Laboratory Service launched a £3 million publicity campaign to persuade parents that the MMR jab posed no risk.