The Conversation (0)
This video of James O'Brien taking down the anti-vax community in relation to a dip in the number of people getting the MMR vaccine is going viral for the best possible reasons.
Figures released by Unicef today show that half a million children in the UK weren't vaccinated against measles in an eight-year period. The figures coincide with a sharp increase in the numbers of people contracting the disease, with the number increasing three-fold to 1,000 in England last year, reports the Independent.
Further, more than half a million children are at risk of contracting the potentially deadly measles virus due to not receiving their vaccinations, with 21 million children worldwide being needlessly put at risk from the infection since 2010.
Speaking on his radio show on LBC, the journalist said:
I will not be taking calls from anybody seeking to defend the anti-vaccination position. Because it is an anti-life position that you’ve adopted.
You are pro-disease, you are pro-death, you are pro-misery and you are pro-contagion.
I’m really sorry if those words hurt and I could not be more sympathetic to your pain if your child has been diagnosed with a condition that you can’t understand or accept.
But I will not be taking calls today because there are not two sides. There’s only one. And that side is science.
Boom, take that, anti-vaxxers! Bit of a slam dunk there from O'Brien!
Among high-income nations, the UK has the third highest number of children who missed their immunisations, with over half a million put at risk in the past eight years.
Only the US and France had more affected children, with 2.6 million in the US, and over 600,000 in France missing their first dose between 2010 and 2017, reports the Independent.
Unicef executive director Henrietta Fore said:
The measles virus will always find unvaccinated children.Â
If we are serious about averting the spread of this dangerous but preventable disease, we need to vaccinate every child, in rich and poor countries alike.
HT The Poke
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