Square deal for vaccine?

http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=020226001266&query=mmr

OBSERVER: Square deal for vaccine? OBSERVER COLUMN
Financial Times; Feb 26, 2002

Could the denizens of Albert Square become shock troops in the government's battle to boost take-up of the controversial MMR vaccine?

Observer hears drug companies are hoping to persuade EastEnders to run a storyline featuring the BBC soap's newest cast member, baby Louise, receiving the jab. The aim? To calm public fears about its safety.

Paul Drayson, chief executive of vaccines company Powderject and director-general of the BioIndustry Association, said the BIA and the UK Vaccine Industry Group were considering approaching scriptwriters.

An EastEnders spokesman said: "We regularly consider various medical issues to be featured in our story lines. However, we base our story lines around characters and not issues."

The BBC would not comment on the dramatic potential of a tussle between Phil Mitchell, who is little Louise's natural father and (welcome to soapland) Mark Fowler, whose partner Lisa Shaw is the baby's mother, over the merits of MMR. But the vaccine companies are convinced it would be a winner - provided, of course, the pro-MMR view prevailed.

The Department of Health is not getting involved. "Research suggests the public trusts their own GP and other health professionals more than anybody else - including soap stars," reproved a spokesman. "Heaven forfend, in any case, that we should suggest story lines to the BBC. We couldn't control the script." Has anybody told Alastair Campbell?

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