I used to quite like Jeni Barnett when she did the cookery program on Chef Porn TV. Turns out she’s a complete idiot.
And now her employer LBC radio – which I have to admit I always thought of as Loud Mouthed Ill-Informed Idiot Radio when I lived in London – is siccing its lawyers onto Dr Ben Goldacre for daring to call her out on her ill-informed rantings about MMR and not vaccinating your children.
Look. This is quite easy. Vaccinations will probably save your child’s life. Not vaccinating your children will increase their chances of them dying, and will also increase the chances that others will die. it’s that simple, really. There’s plenty of evidence that vaccination is good and none that it is bad. Sure, there are plenty of anecdotes from uninformed (wilfully uninformed, even) parents saying that ‘My child fell ill after vaccination’ but the plural of ‘anecdote; is not ‘facts’.
And if, like the nutter on the Jeni Barnett page above, you believe that you can treat measles with vitamin C – stay the hell away from me and keep your superstitions and infectious children to yourself.
When we visited the UK over Christmas, we felt obliged to consult our pediatrician about whether or not to vaccinate Scarlett against TB. This is no longer done routinely in France because it simply doesn’t exist here any more. However, it’s become quite popular in the UK due to people NOT vaccinating their children, with herd immunity against it descending in places to 60%. So, visiting the UK is becoming like visiting the third world – get your vaccinations before you go or you risk catching medieval diseases.
And yes, I am angry, very angry about this. Wilfully, ignorantly putting your children and, above all, my children at risk through stupidity should be illegal. Parents who refuse to have their offspring vaccinated should be prosecuted as if they were beating them with lead pipes.