Last month the World Health Organisation removed Britain from its list of countries where measles had been effectively eliminated. The disease has been circulating continuously since late 2023. Last year there were almost a thousand cases, and a child died in Liverpool. Now there is a measles outbreak in Haringey and Enfield. So far it has affected fewer than a hundred, with no deaths. That could change at any moment.

If you want to warn people that travelling to certain countries is high risk, you name those countries. The fear that doing so is racist is not only misplaced, it is harmful to the people you need to protect

If you want to warn people that travelling to certain countries is high risk, you name those countries. The fear that doing so is racist is not only misplaced, it is harmful to the people you need to protect

A third of children in those boroughs aren’t protected against measles, mumps, and rubella. Other boroughs are as bad; most only a little better. The pool of unvaccinated children is huge and measles is highly infectious. We are a developed country with a national health service free at the point of use. We are the nation that invented vaccination. How did we get here?

We have always had vaccine phobia. From the moment vaccines became common – first they were encouraged, soon they became compulsory – there were antivaxxers. Jenner’s first vaccine was derived from a cow, and cartoons showed the people........

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