By Professor John Robertson, OBA

From ABC News last week:

Doctors worried RFK Jr. will tout vaccine-skeptic views after he is picked for HHS secretary

The appointment of Robert F Kennedy (above) to the post of Health and Human Services Secretary gives a major boost to the hopes of vaccine deniers in the USA and inevitably to those in the UK.

Kennedy is already accused of playing a part in enabling the 2019 Samoa measles outbreak, with 83 deaths and 5 700 cases in a population of only just over 200 000. Only months before, he had travelled to Samoa and met with anti-vaccine figures, contributing to what health experts claim was a ‘significant disinformation campaign’ and plummeting vaccine levels.

^{https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/26/rfk-jr-samoa-visit-measles-outbreak-vaccines}

The virus had probably travelled from New Zealand, island hopping across Tonga and Fiji, to no effect, as they had 99% vaccination levels.

Measles cases in Scotland tend to arrive with travellers from either abroad or from ethnic minority areas in English cities, but do little damage due to continuing high levels of vaccination here.

In the wake of the Kennedy appointment and the consequent increased strength of the vaccine denier movement in places such as London and Birmingham, it will be crucial that Scotland is ready and informed, but in September 2024, we saw:

From Public Health Scotland:

92.8% of children had the first dose of MMR vaccine by 24 months of age. This rose to 95.8% for children who had reached age five. Uptake of the second dose of MMR vaccine by 5 years was 89.4%, rising to 91.1% by age 6 years.¹

There are several authorities, GOV.UK, NHS England, even the BMJ, reporting a ‘successful boost’ in the number of MMR vaccines administered to young children in 2024, (but not in London!) after the Measles surge earlier in the year. None seem prepared to tell what the actual percentage is. Presumably the London figure is making it bad for the image, scary even.

The WHO recommend 95% for ‘herd immunity.’

Statista had no qualms, no political agenda to conceal the awful truth from the people.²

London? 82.4%!³

Given the regular flow between London and places like Edinburgh and Glasgow, this is deeply worrying.

Sources:

1. https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/childhood-immunisation-statistics-scotland/childhood-immunisation-statistics-scotland-quarter-ending-30-june-2024
2. https://www.statista.com/statistics/378638/measles-mumps-and-rubella-immunisation-completed-by-year-in-england/
3. https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-8556/CBP-8556.pdf