‘No no no. Avoid them all’: anti-vaccine conspiracies spread as UK cases of measles increase

In a Facebook group for parents, a mother asks for advice following the recent rise in measles cases.

She’s received a letter from the NHS asking her to take her young daughter for the MMR vaccine, which protects against measles, mumps and rubella, as it’s “dangerous not to have it”.

But she doesn’t know who to trust. “I’ve done some research but feel like a lot of the info on the web is pro-vaccine,” she writes.

Another mother is equally unsure. She’s trying to decide whether she should take her eldest for their childhood jabs and wants to work out which ones are “worth the risk”. “Just trying to learn about it all and make the right decisions. Thank you in advance,” she writes.

Within minutes, both posts have been flooded with replies – almost all of which give the same advice.

“No no no. Avoid them all,” one person says. “Once they’re injected into the bloodstream, the metals and toxins have access to the brain and every organ!” she claims falsely. “Arm yourself with information to decline because they will pressure you.”

Others share stories of children they claim have been damaged by the MMR vaccine. Some advise the parents to “just ignore” communications from the NHS. “I keep getting letters for all my kids. It’s scaremongering. I’ve threatened my surgery with harassment if they don’t stop sending me letters,” another person says.

The onslaught of anti-vaccine comments seems to have the desired effect. Both mothers say thanks for the help. The one who received the NHS letter urging her to take her daughter for the MMR vaccine has made up her mind. “I definitely won’t be letting her have it,” she writes.

It’s perhaps unsurprising that these conversations would take place in a Facebook group where discussions about wellness and holistic health are common. But misinformation about the MMR vaccine is not confined to an obscure corner of the internet.

Last week, several articles about the heightened risk of UK measles outbreaks – posted on social media by major outlets such as Sky and ITV News – were deluged with laughing face emojis and sceptical comments such as “More fear porn”, “They want to jab the kids”, “Fearmongering bullshit” and “More fear so they jab their kids with MMR and poison them at best”. Many comments indicated mistrust of the media, health services and the government. “Rule of thumb, anything the MSM [mainstream media] push, you do the opposite,” said one. Anti-immigration rhetoric about the uptick in measles cases was also common. “It’s coming from the small boat invasion,” one person wrote.

At the same time, influencers who gained large followings during the pandemic – including those at the forefront of sowing doubt about the Covid vaccines – appear to have refocused some attention on MMR.

Amid a fall in childhood immunisation rates, the resurgence of misinformation is alarming health experts. The latest NHS figures show the MMR vaccine uptake is the lowest since 2010-11, with only 84.5% of children having received both doses by age five – well below the WHO recommended rate of 95%. Measles is also rising, with 149 lab-confirmed cases this year compared with 54 in 2022.

Dr Selvaseelan Selvarajah, a GP in east London, is on the frontline of the fight to reverse this trend. Alongside his main practice in Tower Hamlets he is a clinical lead in Hackney, where MMR uptake is the lowest in England – with only 56.3% of five-year-olds having had both doses.

Part of the problem, said Selvarajah, is that there is a “massive overhang” from the days of Andrew Wakefield, who in the late 1990s pushed the debunked theory that the MMR vaccine causes autism – leading uptake to plummet. Those false claims still circulate in some parent circles, he added. General scepticism about vaccines has also risen post-pandemic: “Since Covid we’ve seen a lot more hesitancy. Theories about the MMR and Covid vaccines have merged.”

While for some the anti-vaccine views are deeply entrenched, others are “not anti-vaxxers but they want more information”. In Hackney, there are particular challenges due to the makeup of the borough, which includes traditionally under-vaccinated groups, such as Orthodox Jewish and Somali communities, as well as a section of the “white middle class” who favour “more organic, holistic living and don’t believe in vaccines”. But pressures on the wider health system mean that where before Selvarajah could spend 30 minutes speaking to a vaccine-hesitant parent, now he cannot. “We don’t have the time,” he says.

Instead, Selvarajah and colleagues are trialling initiatives including holding community talks and paying junior doctors to ring up the parents of unvaccinated children to more gently encourage them to come in. He also believes campaigns in nurseries and schools are needed, as well as increased “peer support”. A parent sharing the message that their child had the MMR vaccine and was fine – or caught measles and was not – “is a much more powerful message than expecting an overstretched GP system to do it”, he said.

Such a strategy would effectively be playing anti-vaxxers at their own game. “What anti-vaxxers have been very good at is they’re on Facebook, they’re on Instagram, they’re on TikTok,” said Callum Hood, who leads research at the Center for Countering Digital Hate. “Part of the strategy is to be really approachable and easy to access.” Facebook generally permits such discussions, only removing misinformation it thinks is “likely to directly contribute to the risk of imminent physical harm”.

Modelling by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) suggests failing to improve vaccine uptake could have severe consequences. While the risk of a nationwide epidemic is low, it believes an outbreak of between 40,000 and 160,000 cases could occur in London due to low vaccine uptake in the capital.

Dr Vanessa Saliba, measles lead at the UKHSA, said her team was increasing its work with councils and local health teams to improve uptake of MMR and other childhood vaccinations, including “tailoring and targeting” interventions in “disenfranchised communities”. Early next year, it plans to write to the parents of every unvaccinated child. Staff are also monitoring misinformation online, some of which was “amplified” during the pandemic – however, Saliba is cautious not to overstate the impact of such content. Recent polling of 1,000 parents by the UKHSA suggests opinions of childhood vaccinations remain positive overall. “Parents tell us they see all kinds of information about vaccines from different sources, such as social media, but they don’t trust those sources,” she said.

With measles outbreaks in other parts of the world, she said it was probably only “a matter of time” before UK cases “take off again in quite a big way”. But she said there was now a “window of opportunity” to ensure “every child” was protected.

“One in 10 children who get measles will get complications, and sometimes it can be fatal,” she said. “But it’s completely preventable with a vaccine. Every case we get is a real shame.”

The image at the top of this article was changed on 26 November 2023.