(Birmingham, Edgbaston)
(Lab/Co-op)
(Urgent Question): To ask the Secretary of State for Health and
Social Care to make a statement on the declaration of a national
incident in response to the recent surge in measles cases.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social
Care ()
I thank the hon. Lady for giving me the chance to update the
House on this important matter, further to the written
ministerial statement that we will publish later today.
The UK Health Security Agency announced last week that it has
declared a national standard incident in response to an increase
in confirmed cases of measles. In order for our measles, mumps
and rubella vaccine to work, the World Health Organisation
recommends at least 95% coverage to maintain population coverage.
At the moment, our MMR reach is 89.3% for the first dose at 24
months, and 84.5% for the second dose at five years.
This is not a new issue. There has been a gradual decline in
coverage over 10 years because of a number of factors, ranging
from the Wakefield generation, when Dr Andrew Wakefield published
his discredited paper on the risks of MMR, through to covid, when
routine vaccinations were missed, and there has been a drop since
then. There have also been concerns in particular communities,
such as the Jewish and Muslim communities, about the type of
vaccine used. We have not been waiting: the NHS has carried out a
catch-up effort over the past 12 months, proactively contacting
parents and carers of unvaccinated children aged five and
younger, and we have seen a 10% increase in vaccination compared
to the previous year.
However, that is not enough. NHS figures show that almost 3.5
million children under the age of 16 are unprotected and at risk
of catching this serious and preventable disease. Measles is so
infectious that one infected child in a classroom can infect up
to nine other unvaccinated children, making it one of the most
infectious diseases worldwide. While for most it will be a mild
illness, one in five children with measles will need to be
admitted to hospital for treatment, putting additional pressure
on the NHS.
I want to stress that this is not just a childhood disease; for
adults who have not been vaccinated it can be a serious and
potentially life-changing event. My message to mums and dads with
children who are currently unvaccinated is to come forward. We
have a range of measures in place. One million letters are going
out to the parents of unvaccinated children across London and the
midlands.
We have extra clinics being set up by GPs, pop-up clinics in
schools and vaccine buses targeting communities with low
vaccination rates. We have held two MP briefing sessions, on 12
and 19 January: one for the west midlands and one for London.
Today we have sent out information to MPs so that they can help
us get the message out to their constituents to come forward. It
is not too late. There is no age limit. Anybody who has not had
their vaccination can come forward. The first vaccine will
provide roughly 92% protection, and the second will provide 98%.
The message is to come forward and get vaccinated.
Thank you for granting this urgent question, Mr Speaker.
The declaration of a national incident due to the rise in measles
cases by the UK Health Security Agency on Friday is concerning.
Measles can be serious and it is extremely infectious, with a
reproduction rate five times that of covid. However, it is also
entirely preventable. The Minister is right to emphasise the
importance of getting vaccinated. The MMR vaccine is safe,
effective and the best way to protect ourselves and our loved
ones against measles. There is no age cut-off for getting an MMR
vaccine. There are alternatives available for those who do not
touch pork products. Once a person has had it, the vaccine can
provide protection within two weeks. I urge anyone watching this
who has not been vaccinated to contact their GP.
Mr Speaker, we are in agreement that this issue is serious. I
thank the Minister for outlining some of the steps that she is
taking. However, we should never have got to this point. The UK
was deemed by the World Health Organisation to have eradicated
measles just five years ago. Since then, MMR vaccination rates
have plummeted, leaving tens of thousands of children completely
unprotected, which means that now one in five children is not
protected with two doses by the age of five. Cases have also
risen consistently over the years, and by 120% in the past year
alone, so the warning signs could have been seen from space. What
steps are being taken to get a grip on this crisis before it
becomes a national outbreak? How will the Minister rectify her
Department’s failure to maintain child vaccination rates for
contagious diseases? Is this not another instance of Government
complacency when it comes to protecting our children’s
health?
For the record, Mr Speaker, my team attended a briefing with the
Minister and her officials on this issue on 12 January, which she
has mentioned. I requested some more information and
communications materials that I could use in my capacity as a
local MP, given the rise in cases in Birmingham. It took until
this morning—some 10 days later—to be sent that information, but
only after a national incident had been declared. Have the
Government been asleep? Have no lessons been learned from the
pandemic that, with highly transmissible diseases, the sooner we
act, the better?
We saw how much children suffered and lost out during the
pandemic, so the re-emergence of serious childhood illnesses that
we have vaccines for and that we know how to prevent is
unacceptable. When 80 countries across the world are
measles-free, it is a badge of shame that this Government have
lost the UK that status on their watch.
I remind the hon. Lady that health is a devolved matter across
the United Kingdom. When she refers to the United Kingdom’s lower
MMR vaccination rate, does she include Labour-run Wales? Wales
has also not met the WHO threshold, and neither has Scotland,
Northern Ireland or England. It is a real shame to play politics
with this issue. This is an issue of the utmost importance.
As I have set out, this Government have been working over the
past 12 months to get vaccination rates up in England, and we
have seen a 10% increase. There are a range of reasons why we are
seeing certain parts of the country and some communities not
coming forward. The hon. Lady touched on the concerns of the
Jewish and Muslim communities that a wide range of MMR vaccines
are porcine vaccines. We do have non-porcine vaccines available.
Priorix is not just available on request; following a meeting
that we had with west midlands MPs, we proactively pushed Priorix
out to communities. The help of local MPs to get that message out
to communities would be extremely valuable. There is also a halal
vaccine available. Again, we need to get that message out, so
that people do not have to request it; it would be routinely
offered to them.
We are also undoing much of the damage done to the Wakefield
cohort of young adults, who were born between 1998 and 2004, when
Dr Andrew Wakefield’s discredited paper on the risks of MMR led
to a drop in the numbers coming forward for the vaccine. Those
young adults are eligible for vaccines right now to try to
prevent the spread of measles.
We also know that covid disrupted the routine vaccination
programme. Again, that is a key reason why all four nations of
the United Kingdom are not meeting the WHO recommended coverage.
As I have set out, letters are going out to the parents of
unvaccinated children, because we recognise that rates have been
lower than we would wish. One million have gone out across London
and the west midlands. Of all parts of the United Kingdom, it is
the west midlands that we are most concerned about.
To give the House some context, last year there were more than
209 laboratory-confirmed measles cases in England, over three
quarters of which were from the west midlands, predominantly
Birmingham and Coventry, so there is a particular push in the
west midlands. That is why nearly two weeks ago we gave a
briefing to local MPs and local directors of public health, who
are doing an outstanding job at the coalface, rolling out pop-up
clinics in schools and going out on community buses to reach
communities that may struggle to be reached through traditional
routes. GPs are putting on extra clinics, but we have to get the
message out. It is not through a lack of vaccines or a lack of
messaging, but we still have vaccine hesitancy. We all have a
role to play in getting communities to come forward.
Mr Speaker
I call the Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee.
(Winchester) (Con)
In April last year, the UK Health Security Agency told the Health
and Social Care Committee that it was
“expecting measles to come back”,
while the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation told us
that the threat was “very real”. Last summer, as the Minister
knows, we published a vaccination report as part of our
prevention inquiry. We were pleased that, in answer to a
recommendation, NHS England published its vaccination strategy
just before Christmas. Can the Minister say more about how she
will inject more urgency into the roll-out, and will she commit,
as we also asked, to a much more flexible delivery model for
vaccinations, including through pharmacy?
The Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee is right. That
is why we have met with both the west midlands and the London
teams to hear from those on the ground what resources they need
in order to become more nimble in the vaccine roll-out. The
communities that are not coming forward are the ones that are not
engaging with the routine MMR vaccine programme, so we need to be
more nimble, which is why we are hearing from those vaccinating
on the ground about vaccine buses going into communities, pop-up
clinics in schools, and GPs putting on extra vaccine clinics.
From our data, we have a list of the children who are
unvaccinated, and more than a million letters have gone out to
their parents to urge them to come forward.
My hon. Friend is right about using pharmacy, with Pharmacy First
as a model, to make it even easier for people to come forward,
but the real barrier is people’s reluctance to get vaccinated for
a variety of reasons, whether it is vaccine fatigue through covid
or because they missed their routine appointments and find it
difficult to come forward at an extra clinic. We are engaging
with local authorities and the Department for Education to try to
make it as easy as possible for children and adults to get
vaccinated.
(Oldham East and
Saddleworth) (Lab)
There are clear inequalities in vaccination uptake, including
MMR, which reflect various socioeconomic inequalities. What extra
support is being given to those areas, and to places such as
mine, and why, as the Chair of the Health and Social Care
Committee suggests, was the risk assessment of the UK Health
Security Agency seemingly ignored by the Government?
I can assure the hon. Lady that it was not ignored by the
Government. Over the past 12 months, we have been pushing
vaccinations to those who have not come forward, and to
communities that struggle with vaccination uptake, which is why
in the past 12 months there has been a 10% increase. As I say,
that is not enough. There are still people who need to come
forward for vaccination who have not done so. I emphasise to the
House that this is an acute outbreak of measles. If someone has
their first dose of the measles vaccine today, within two weeks
they will have roughly 92% immunity. If they go on to have the
second vaccine, they will have roughly 98% immunity, which will
be lifelong.
(New Forest West) (Con)
Might vaccination rates benefit from a much more generous
compensation scheme for the very small number of severe adverse
reactions?
We have a vaccine damage payment scheme, which provides a one-off
payment of £120,000. That is accessible for any vaccine that
someone takes up, but I have to say that part of the problem is
misleading information about the safety of vaccines. The measles
vaccine is safe. At one point, we had eliminated measles in this
country. Most children will be fine, with a mild illness, but we
have had episodes of children getting encephalitis, which is a
swelling of the brain that has lifelong consequences. We must
move away from the narrative that vaccines are not safe. The
measles vaccine is one of the safest vaccines people can have. I
really do not think that that messaging is helpful.
(St Albans) (LD)
During the covid pandemic, my constituency of St Albans had one
of the highest rates of vaccination. That was, in part, because
of the work of our GPs and pharmacists, but we were also
incredibly proactive at recruiting community champions, who could
have those vital conversations to tackle hesitancy within
particular pockets of our community. The Minister has mentioned
pop-up clinics and vans, but she has not mentioned the role of
community champions. Will she work with and support the directors
of public health to recruit those community champions, who can
have those vital conversations so that people can put their
questions to people they know and trust?
The hon. Lady is right that we used community champions during
covid. We had some particularly effective campaigns for those
communities that do not traditionally come forward for
vaccinations, and that was done by using community leaders, faith
leaders and trusted organisations within communities. We are
doing that in the west midlands, in London and across the
country.
Those people tell us that one of the key things that prevents
Jewish and Muslim communities in particular from coming forward
is their fear about the porcine vaccine. Just to reiterate, we
have two types of MMR vaccine. Priorix does not contain gelatine
and is safe and effective as an MMR vaccine. It is available on
request, but we are also pushing out its availability so that
people do not have to request it and it is offered up front. It
is important that people know we have sufficient supply of the
gelatine-free MMR product, and faith leaders, community groups
and organisations are trying to get that message out to those two
particular groups.
(Erewash) (Con)
My hon. Friend has an important message today because, after
clean water, vaccines are the most impactful public health
measure we have and, without a doubt, they save lives. One of the
lessons we learned through the pandemic was that the most
effective way to reach hard-to-reach communities is through faith
and community leaders and to take the vaccines to those
communities, whether that is to mosques or temples. Will she do
whatever she can to ensure that we employ the same measures this
time and take the vaccines to the communities and not expect the
communities to go to the vaccines? Will she also consider
reaching out to those fantastic vaccinators we had during the
covid pandemic, who are highly trained to deliver vaccines to all
age groups, and getting them on board to get the MMR vaccinations
carried out as quickly as possible?
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I pay tribute to the work she
did during the covid pandemic to roll out the vaccine programme
to those community groups. That had such an effective reach for
something we were struggling with previously, and she worked hard
on that. That is exactly what we are trying to replicate with
this roll-out, and we are working with community groups and faith
leaders, but also taking the vaccine out to communities. I was on
the call with the London teams on Friday, and they have a vaccine
bus that they are taking out to community centres and faith
groups so that people do not have to book an appointment to get
the vaccine. It is important to say that this is not just for
children. If an adult has not had their vaccine, it is never too
late to get the MMR vaccine to protect themselves against
measles.
(Eltham) (Lab)
Does the Minister accept that the reduction in the number of
health professionals who support parents has contributed to the
reduction in the number of parents presenting their children for
the MMR vaccine, and that that is one of the lessons we should
learn from this situation?
I would not agree with the hon. Gentleman. We have plenty of
vaccine—that is one of the messages we want to get out—and that
is both the traditional MMR vaccine and the non-porcine vaccine.
We also have plenty of vaccination spaces. We have spaces at GP
clinics and pharmacies, and the school roll-out programme has
spaces, but we still do not have people coming forward. We really
need the help of all hon. Members in this place to get the
message out that people should come forward for their MMR vaccine
to protect against measles.
(Vauxhall)
(Lab/Co-op)
Every time my six-year-old comes home coughing, I get a bit
scared because, obviously, measles is highly contagious. It is
important that we get the message out about the way it is passed
on through coughs, sneezes and high fevers. The Minister has
outlined a range of areas where the Government are trying to get
that message out, but the fact is that they are fighting against
a system where a number of the hesitancy messages are shared in
closed groups—groups that are getting that message out to parents
and carers who will not come forward. Will the Minister outline
what the Government are doing to counter that and to give people
an informed choice on the vaccine, so that they come forward with
their children?
The hon. Lady is quite right that there is vaccine hesitancy, and
that is a key reason why uptake has dropped so significantly
across all groups, but more in some groups than in others. That
is why NHS England and the UK Health Security Agency have written
to more than 1 million parents in the west midlands and London to
highlight the benefits of having the MMR vaccine. As more cases
of measles break out, we are seeing more people come forward to
take up the vaccine, because they are balancing for themselves
the risk of having the vaccine, which is very minimal, against
the risk of having measles. Any help that hon. Members can give
is welcome and we are very willing to hear any suggestions they
have for helpful messages in their own particular
communities.
(Pontypridd) (Lab)
The Minister is right to point out that one reason for the
decline in people coming forward to take up the MMR vaccine is
the rise of dis- and misinformation about the vaccine—not just
online, but, sadly, perpetrated in this House. The Online Safety
Act 2023 does very little to tackle online dis- and
misinformation and to keep people safe. What is the purpose of
the Government’s counter disinformation unit? Why is there no
transparency on what that unit is supposedly doing, and when will
the Government stand up to the social media platforms and stop
them proliferating this dis- and misinformation and profiting
from something that is causing real-world harm?
The hon. Lady has a point that part of the vaccine hesitancy is
due to misinformation about vaccines more generally. That is why
we are trying to use the message of immunisation rather than
vaccination, because it is a much more positive message. We are
also providing positive messages and social media graphics for
communities and Members of this House to roll out to counter some
of that misinformation. It is really important that we get that
message out. There is a problem with misinformation, and I want
to reiterate that measles is a highly infectious disease that can
be eliminated by vaccination alone.
(Strangford) (DUP)
I thank the Minister very much for her positive response to this
urgent question. You and I are of similar vintage, Mr Speaker,
and I recall getting my measles vaccination at Ballywalter
Primary School in the early ’60s—so not yesterday, but a long
time ago. There was a system where vaccination happened in
schools, and I think that is where it should happen.
The Northern Ireland Audit Office reports that the number of
pre-school vaccinations has been steadily declining and the rate
of children getting the MMR vaccine at two years of age has
fallen from 96% in 2012 to 90% in 2022—a significant drop in
Northern Ireland, with a population of 1.95 million. There is
clearly a crisis emerging not just in England, but across the
whole of the United Kingdom, in particular in Northern Ireland.
Does the Minister agree it would be helpful to have a joint
approach across the whole United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland, to ensure that children are vaccinated and,
more importantly, protected against this awful disease? It is
always better to do it together; that is my suggestion to the
Minister.
Mr Speaker
I think that was the Adjournment debate on measles.
[Laughter.]
The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right and I want to work with
all four corners of the United Kingdom, because none of us is
meeting the World Health Organisation coverage for MMR. Northern
Ireland has similar rates to England at 89%. A joined-up
approach, so that we have better coverage for MMR across the UK
and can get back on top of breakouts and eradicate measles once
again, would be very welcome.
Measles Cases: Private
Notice Question
Asked by
To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of
the declaration of a national health incident by the UK Health
Security Agency over a surge in measles cases across the
country.
(Con)
My Lords, the UK Health Security Agency declared a national
incident on 8 January 2024. The government health system is
taking control of the disease’s spread. Our aim is to protect as
many individuals as possible through convenient vaccination,
targeting our offer to low-uptake communities; to contain
outbreaks by working with local partners to effectively contact,
trace and reduce risk to the most vulnerable; and to promote
vaccination through engagement and communication with GPs,
teachers and trusted community leaders.
(Lab)
My Lords, this is a grave yet preventable situation, especially
as 80 countries across the world are measles-free while the UK
has lost its status. I am sure that the Minister recognises that
the Government should have read the warning signs and acted
sooner to tackle vaccine hesitancy and low take-up. How will
lessons be learned from the pandemic and used to focus on the
communities, children and young people at greatest risk? Will a
taskforce be established to co-ordinate relevant partners and
oversee a rapid improvement to get to the WHO 95% target for
take-up?
(Con)
From 1 January 2023 to 30 November 2023 there were 209
laboratory-confirmed measles cases in England. Over
three-quarters of those cases are from the West Midlands,
predominantly Birmingham and Coventry. In the West Midlands, an
NHS integrated care board system partnership group has been
establishing and co-ordinating a regional response. Extensive
local communications and engagement have been undertaken in the
West Midlands alongside the immediate response to support the
uptake of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. Nationally, the
UK Health Security Agency has established an incident management
team to oversee the public health response to the outbreak. The
noble Baroness is exactly right: this country had a proud record
on vaccination prior to Covid-19 but there has been a decline in
recent years since the pandemic, and we have to do more to get
back our status.
(LD)
My Lords, a large group of adults in this country have not been
vaccinated against measles for a variety of reasons. Can the
Minister confirm that any adult who believes that they have not
had the MMR vaccine can receive it free of charge on demand from
their GP? Is he confident that there is enough capacity in the
system for the routine childhood immunisations, as well as for
making sure that when adults do the right thing and protect
themselves with vaccination they can receive one quickly?
(Con)
The noble Lord raises a very good point; about 25 years ago there
were rumours and misinformation about the MMR vaccine, so there
is a cohort of those in the younger generation—mid-20s or so—who
should contact their GP today and ask for an appointment, which
can be confirmed. I believe that there is capacity for all those
who wish to have vaccinations at their GP surgeries.
(Con)
My Lords, will my noble friend work with community groups that I
am working with to get the message across about the importance of
the measles vaccination? I have realised that, especially since
Covid, there is a fear among particular groups of getting their
families vaccinated. Perhaps we should have a communication plan
that is accessible for everyone.
(Con)
I am very happy to meet my noble friend’s community leaders. It
is very concerning that certain segments of our communities feel
uncertainty and doubt about these very safe vaccines, and the
Government are working very hard with all sections of the
community.
My Lords, on the relatively low take-up in minority communities,
either the message is not getting through, sometimes for language
reasons, or there is a lack of trust. There is quite a lot of
evidence, not least in other parts of the world, that the way to
address that is to clearly target the recognised community
leaders so that they can act as brokers. What attempts are being
made to work in our gurdwaras, temples and mosques in particular,
to get those leaders to commend these vaccinations to the people
with whom they are in direct contact?
(Con)
The right reverend Prelate is right to bring up this subject.
Pop-up clinics are a quick and easy way to serve hard-to-reach
communities. He mentioned mosques, where the Government are using
a new initiative to encourage parents to take their children for
immunisation. He also mentioned distrust of the vaccine; for
example, there are variations with different make-ups. For those
with religious beliefs about using pig content, there are
alternatives. There is no reason why anybody in this country
should not take up this very safe vaccine; as he says, we have to
encourage all sections of the community to take it up.
(CB)
My Lords, will the Minister comment on the fact that there is
such an unequal distribution of health visitors among different
communities? Often young mothers and fathers, in particular, do
not have the attention of and discussion with a health visitor
about the importance of vaccinations generally. Will the
Government look at this in detail so that we can return to the
situation we had five years ago?
(Con)
The situation varies across the country. What is clear in the
more deprived sections of certain communities is that such
communications are not what they could and should be. The message
to any parents of young children is that they should contact
their GP today and get them vaccinated.
(Con)
My Lords, for those who were involved in the vaccine reluctance
programme 20 or more years ago, the major difficulty was that the
simultaneous MMR vaccine had a stabiliser called thimerosal, and
it was believed that thimerosal led to adverse reactions in a
number of young people. Will my noble friend confirm that
thimerosal as a stabiliser has been removed; I am sure that he
cannot answer that now, but will he write to me and put a copy of
the letter in the Library?
(Con)
I am grateful to my noble friend for that question. He is right
that I cannot answer his specific point on the make-up of the
vaccine, but I will write to him and place a copy in the Library.
The MMR vaccine is perfectly safe; that is not to say that some
individuals—a tiny proportion—might not have an allergic reaction
or whatever to it, but it is very safe and can save lives.
(Lab)
My Lords, 11 months ago there was a gathering in the Carlton Club
of those who believed that vaccines are part of some great global
conspiracy. This is an international problem of people
undermining trust in medical solutions such as the MMR vaccine or
Covid vaccinations. Have the Government been complacent about
this, perhaps because so many of their right-wing friends support
this nonsense?
(Con)
I do not accept the premise of the noble Lord’s question. The
Government are committed to tackling vaccine misinformation. This
includes ongoing monitoring of vaccine uptake and attitudes
towards vaccines by the UK Health Security Agency. The Department
of Health has always worked alongside the NHS, other government
departments and social media companies to develop innovative and
effective ways to tackle anti-vaccine messaging and limit
misinformation. The Government also work with the UKHSA and the
NHS to support parents, to ensure that patients have access to
up-to-date and accurate information on all vaccines delivered by
the NHS, and to identify and rebut false information.
(CB)
My Lords, have the Government been able to ascertain why the
vaccination rate in the West Midlands is so low in contrast to
other parts of the country?
(Con)
My Lords, the vaccination rate in the West Midlands is below the
national average but not as low as in London. In London it is 75%
and in the West Midlands it is 80%, so it not just a case of the
West Midlands. There are many reasons why: large concentrations
of social deprivation, transient communities and misinformation
bring that all to a head, and to a very low and unacceptable
uptake in vaccination.
(Con)
My Lords, it is not just the rate for MMR that has fallen behind
but that for the majority of childhood vaccines recommended by
the WHO. Last year, the House of Commons Health and Social Care
Committee published a report with a large number of
recommendations on how to catch up on those important
vaccinations, including the deployment of retired clinicians and
nurses to increase the capacity. Those recommendations have been
largely ignored. Will my noble friend please advise me whether
the Government are inclined to relook at that important report
and implement some of its helpful suggestions?
(Con)
I am grateful to my noble friend for his helpful suggestions. I
do not have an answer to his question here and now but I will
certainly feed it back to the department.
(Lab)
My Lords, it is extremely difficult to influence public opinion
when people latch on to the misinformation that is floating
around. One way of combating it is by using different techniques
to get to the public. I wonder whether the security agency has
engaged with PR companies or used IT, such as TikTok and various
other things which I know nothing about but which seem to
influence public opinion.
(Con)
The noble Lord raises a very good point. There are modern
communications tools, such as TikTok, which young people use.
Given the collective memory of this dreadful disease that our
parents or grandparents used to talk about—how debilitating
measles in the first half of the 20th century could be in ruining
lives, including affecting babies’ ability to see and hear—this
is a success story. We almost eradicated this disease in 2015,
but the collective memory means that it is perfectly safe in some
people’s eyes. There is misinformation saying that not to take
this vaccination is a safe thing to do. It is not and we have to
do more, including through social media, to make sure that
younger people realise they should get their children
vaccinated.
(GP)
My Lords, NHS England is recommending that all our staff in GP
surgeries who deal with patients with suspected and confirmed
cases of measles—which, given the symptoms, means a large number
of patients—should wear PPE. Is the Minister confident that there
are enough supplies of PPE? Do the GPs have to bear the extra
cost of that PPE or will there be support from the centre to
ensure that cost is covered?
(Con)
The noble Baroness asked a very important question about PPE. I
am not aware of any issues in GP practices when GPs are meeting
patients from their communities to discuss vaccinating their
children.
(CB)
My Lords, regarding communication with parents and community
leaders, are the Government looking at and talking about the fact
that vaccination is not simply a personal decision and has
consequences beyond it? It has gone away from public
consciousness that a decision not to vaccinate a healthy child in
one’s own family can have catastrophic effects for
immunocompromised children in other families and for children who
cannot medically be vaccinated. It is very important, given the
social impact of vaccination and immunisation programmes, that
the Government take that message about responsibilities regarding
other children at schools or nurseries with unvaccinated children
to their communications with the public.
(Con)
I wholeheartedly agree; the noble Baroness raises a very
important point. It is a decision for parents to make about their
child. However, when that child goes to school, it is also about
the children within their class and wider society. As I said in a
previous answer, we have lost the collective memory of what a
terrible disease it is for those young people. As outlined by the
noble Baroness, it is really quite simple. I say again to anybody
with young children who have not been vaccinated, or who thinks
they have not been vaccinated: contact your GP and arrange a
vaccination visit.
(CB)
My Lords, in Germany children cannot attend school if they have
not had a measles vaccination. In France, Italy and some other
countries, such vaccinations are compulsory. Will the Government
introduce such legislation here?
(Con)
The noble Lord asks a very good question. That is how Germany and
France deal with their children; this is Britain. I will take the
noble Lord’s suggestion to the department and will write to him.
