http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/324/7338/630/a
The measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine may not be as great a bogeyman as recent media coverage suggests.
Research by the market research organisation MORI shows that people worry more about biological weapons, the genetic modification of food and animals, bovine spongiform encephalopathy and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, organ transplants from animals to humans, gene therapy, and health problems from mobile phones.
MORI asked 1001 adults to identify from a list of science-related issues which, if any, they were particularly worried about. Three quarters (740 respondents) said that biological weapons caused them concern, whereas only 37% (366) identified the MMR vaccine. Of the other medical issues in the list, only stem cell research was ranked lower than MMR, with 28% of people (277) saying it was a worry.
The research, which was carried out on 15-17 February, when stories about public anxiety over the triple vaccine figured highly in the media, also found that attitudes to the vaccine did not vary greatly between people who had children and those who did not. A third (223) of respondents who had no children under the age of 16 said that the MMR vaccine worried them, compared with 45% of those with one child under 16 and 46% of those with two children under 16.
The results of MORI's survey, which was commissioned by the Royal Society, were presented last week at the Royal Society's first national forum for science, which was convened to debate "Do we trust today's scientists?"
Nobel prize winner Dr Paul Nurse, who is director general of Cancer Research UK, told the forum that he was surprised that the MMR vaccine didn't rank higher.
He added that genetic modification, BSE and CJD, and nuclear power had all shaken public confidence in the government's scientific advice.
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