Since Dr Andrew Wakefield published his now discredited article the proportion of under twos receiving the jab has fallen from 92.5% to 79%.
That has increased significantly the risk of catching some very nasty, potentially fatal diseases, not just to those children denied the jab, but to others they might infect.
There was never a shred of evidence from any other scientist or doctor to support Dr Wakefield�s assertion that the MMR vaccine caused autism. Yet parts of the media ran wholly irresponsible campaigns against it, the effect of which has been to scare off parents from giving their children the vaccine.
We now know that Dr Wakefield had received �55,000 for research from lawyers representing the families who were attempting to sue the medical companies who make the vaccine. A connection he failed to declare and something the General Medical Council is now looking at.
This whole sorry saga has been a classic battle between reason and science on the one hand and superstition and prejudice on the other.
We stopped burning witches several hundred years ago. Most surviving superstitions, like touching wood and not walking under ladders, are pretty harmless.
But the ill informed and, as we now know, self-interested campaign against the MMR vaccine was not. It put children�s lives at risks.
People are right to question science. There have been terrible mistakes like Thalidomide and BSE.
But a frightening number of people nowadays seem readier to believe quacks and voodoo merchants than reputable scientists who have spent years becoming leaders in their fields.
The next example is likely to come when the Government announces its policy on GM crops.
One hopes, following the MMR debacle, that that debate will be conducted on a more rational and scientific level. Don�t hold your breath.
