DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Ignorance on jabs is harming our children

Measles is not just some childhood rite of passage. It is a highly contagious disease and can be dangerous.

For most, the infection will be unpleasant. But it sometimes leads to deafness, brain damage and death, causing unimaginable heartbreak to the families affected.

In developed countries such as Britain, with its health service funded to the hilt, it ought to have been consigned to history.

And yet, 60 years after medical science discovered an effective vaccination to stamp it out, this old scourge is making an unwelcome comeback in the UK.

As a result, the UK Health Security Agency has declared a rare ‘national incident’. It has warned urgent action is needed to stop the disease spreading across the country.

Take-up of the MMR jab, which offers almost complete protection against measles, has slumped to its lowest level for a decade (stock image)

Measles is not just some childhood rite of passage. It is a highly contagious disease and can be dangerous (stock image)

Deputy chief medical officer Professor Dame Jenny Harries

But while alarming, this is sadly no surprise.

Take-up of the MMR jab, which offers almost complete protection against measles, has slumped to its lowest level for a decade.

In some areas, almost half of children are unprotected (the World Health Organisation recommends 95 per cent of the population should be fully inoculated).

So what is behind the troubling drop in vaccination rates?

Some parents simply lack awareness of the jabs programme. For others, complacency has crept in – when a disease is perceived to be low risk, they are less inclined to ensure their children are immunised.

Crackpot ‘anti-vaxx’ scare stories on social media and ill-informed gossip at the school gate about supposed risks are also doing harm.

Meanwhile health chiefs are striving to boost take-up in the Muslim community. Many are concerned that the MMR vaccine contains a pork derivative, forbidden under Islam, but a vegan alternative exists.

The HSA deserves credit for addressing this issue. Tiptoeing around the truth to avoid offending cultural sensitivities will not help solve this or other problems.

Ministers are right to put more effort into ensuring every child has their doses, but it is essential parents play their part too.

In a world where often so much of the focus is on new drugs and cutting-edge technology, this simple, free jab is the most effective tool for eradicating measles – and keeping us all safe.

Blood on their hands

With breathtaking arrogance, liberal-Left peers have vowed to defy the will of the people by killing off Rishi Sunak’s plan to end illegal Channel crossings.

But before these out-of-touch blowhards start hobbling the Rwanda Bill, they should read our investigation on pages 6 & 7.

We reveal that evil trafficking gangs have moved their lucrative trade further down the French coast. That means much longer dinghy journeys for migrants, with more risk of capsizing and drowning.

With breathtaking arrogance, liberal-Left peers have vowed to defy the will of the people by killing off Rishi Sunak’s plan to end illegal Channel crossings

So for each day the legislation grinds its way through the House of Lords, the people-smuggling industry booms and more migrant lives are endangered.

How they moralise, those pompous peers. But if they obstruct the Rwanda deterrent, they will have blood on their hands.

Net zero’s human cost

The decision by Tata to close its blast furnaces in Port Talbot, with the loss of 2,800 steelworking jobs, is a devastating blow.

Steel is such a vital strategic asset that Britain’s capacity to manufacture it should not be allowed to dwindle and die. So how have we reached that point?

The truth is, successive governments have saddled our domestic industry with crippling handicaps which make them uncompetitive.

First, the green taxes imposed by Ed Miliband’s Climate Change Act. Then the insane dash for net zero, which has led Tata to switch to greener, but less labour-intensive, production methods.

Politicians may wail and wring their hands, but their eagerness to burnish their green credentials is costing jobs and livelihoods.