People who believe the myths spread by anti-vaccine campaigners "are absolutely wrong", England's top doctor, Prof Dame Sally Davies said. The MMR vaccine was safe and had been given to millions of children worldwide but uptake was currently "not good enough". The chief medical officer urged parents to get their children vaccinated and ignore "social media fake news" In England, 87% of children receive two doses but the target is 95%. She said myths peddled about the dangers of vaccines on social media was one reason parents weren't taking their children to get the MMR vaccine. "A number of people, stars, believe these myths - they are wrong. Over these 30 years, we have vaccinated millions of children. It is a safe vaccination - we know that - and we've saved millions of lives across the world. People who spread these myths, when children die they will not be there to pick up the pieces or the blame."
The MMR vaccine has dramatically reduced cases of measles, mumps and rubella and saved about 4,000 deaths from measles, resulting in the UK being declared "measles free" by the World Health Organization last year. This means the disease is no longer native to the UK, although cases do still occur. There had been too many cases of measles in England this year - 903 so far,
the uptake of the MMR vaccine has now dropped back to 87% and young people who had missed out on the MMR vaccine had been particularly affected. "That means a lot of protection but it doesn't give us herd immunity," Dame Sally said. "So when people from abroad have been coming in, travelling infected, it is spreading into our local communities."
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