Nobody wants to hurt a child.
asserted
Nobody → want → child
The howl of pain, the tears, the look of betrayed shock all make it very hard to deliver a cherished small person to the needle-wielding nurse.
asserted
it → betray → nurse
But that’s part of being a responsible parent.
asserted
that → ’ → ?
It becomes a lot tougher if mum or dad is being fed mixed and erroneous messages about the benefits and harms of vaccination.
asserted
mum → become → vaccination
Parents have to make a lot of decisions about what’s right for their child, from the school they should go to and the food they should eat to the hours they should spend on the phone or watching TV.
asserted
they → have → TV
In the US, Donald Trump wants them to add another: do they choose to give their children separate jabs against measles, mumps and rubella, involving six visits to the clinic, or should they opt for the combined MMR vaccine, which does the job in two?
asserted
which → want → two
For decades, the vast majority of families have been taking the advice of doctors, accepting their assurance that the MMR vaccine is safe and very effective.
asserted
vaccine → take → assurance
But what are they to think when a US president announces that the triple jab could be “quite lethal” and signs an executive order advising states to offer separate vaccines?
uncertain
jab → think → vaccines
For the moment, what Mr Trump is proposing is an empty choice.
asserted
proposing → propose → what
They have not been widely used in decades.
asserted
They → use → decades
In the US and in the UK, they don’t have a licence, and to get one, pharma companies such as GSK and Merck & Co would probably have to run new clinical trials to prove that they work and are safe, which would take years.
asserted
which → have → years
Both have already said that no published scientific evidence supports splitting the MMR vaccine into single shots.
asserted
evidence → say → shots
They are not rushing to invest in making them, for all the US president’s enthusiasm.
asserted
They → rush → enthusiasm
But we are likely to see a rerun of the furore and distress in 1998 caused by Andrew Wakefield, the British gastroenterologist (not an infectious diseases specialist) who declared that the MMR vaccine was linked to the gut disorder Crohn’s disease and thence to autism.
asserted
vaccine → see → autism
His evidence-free advice was for parents to seek separate vaccines.
asserted
parents → seek → vaccines
As now, they were not readily available, so many children went without.
asserted
children → go → ?
Measles vaccination levels dropped alarmingly and measles cases rose.
asserted
cases → drop → ?
Struck off as a doctor, Mr Wakefield now lives in Texas, hero-worshipped by vaccine sceptics, and his views are embraced by all those suspicious of or hostile to the medical and scientific establishment, including the president and his health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr.
asserted
views → strike → president
They fit an anti-science agenda that has recently seen the pursuit by a congressional committee of Dr Anthony Fauci, who led the US response to Covid-19 and is now being accused of covering up its origins.
asserted
who → fit → origins
Mr Trump and RFK Jr already aim to shrink the vaccine schedule in the US from 18 to 11 shots, citing Denmark, where fewer vaccines are given to young children.
asserted
vaccines → aim → children
But Denmark offers universal high-quality healthcare and excellent screening programmes to pick up those at risk.
asserted
Denmark → offer → risk
The US does not, and children fall through the cracks.
asserted
children → do → cracks
No other country recommends single measles, mumps and rubella vaccines.
asserted
country → recommend → vaccines
But such is the confusion that some parents are likely to take away the message that the combined jab is unsafe – and that no jab is a better choice.
asserted
jab → take → message
President Trump is putting at risk the very “beautiful, healthy, lovely, delicate little children” that he claims to care about.
uncertain
he → put → that
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article?
asserted
you → have → article
If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
asserted
you → like → section
The Aporia
