You’re entitled to your own opinions, not your own facts. Vaccines work

Towards the beginning of the 1960s, back-end baby boomers like me were amongst the last kids in the UK to be vaccinated against smallpox. The vaccination programme was available free to all via Labour’s youthful National Health Service, barely 15 years old. My parents accepted the concept of vaccination without a second thought.

Vaccination programmes had expanded massively since the end of the Second World War. This was not just for the benefit of their son’s health and wellbeing. Instead, it protected everyone in the little Welsh town where I was growing up. This was democratic socialism in action – taxpayer-funded health protection for all, not just the privileged few.

In 1980, not long after my 18th birthday, the World Health Organisation reported that smallpox had been eradicated, thanks to an unprecedented global immunisation campaign. Vaccination worked. Millions of lives were saved. Millions more were spared the pain and disfigurement caused by the scabs, blisters and sores that tormented the smallpox victim.

Vaccination programmes in developed nations like the UK are constantly evolving. At the time of writing, young people are given protection against an impressive list of infectious diseases, many of which those without young children have probably forgotten about: diphtheria; flu; Hepatitis B; Hib; human papilloma virus; measles; meningitis B & C; mumps; pneumococcal disease; polio; rotavirus; rubella; tetanus; tuberculosis; whooping cough.

This vital protection is programmed into the early childcare support provided by the NHS. Many parents take this for granted, as it seems to happen without any apparent effort. But nothing could be further from the truth. We should all be thankful for the thousands of health visitors, school nurses and GP practices who co-ordinate and deliver these vaccination programmes. Nor should we forget the analysts, administrators and project managers behind the scenes without whom none of this would happen.

Today, British children stand a better chance of living happier, healthier, pain-free lives. This did not come about by accident. It is all because mass vaccination programmes, free to all at the point of use, courtesy of a publicly-owned and -funded NHS. Vaccination works.

That’s why the news of a breakthrough in the search for a vaccine against Covid raised spirits last week. Nowhere was this more apparent than on the world’s stock markets, where confidence is the only currency that matters. In the UK, the prospect of a vaccine 90% effective against Covid brought real hope to a nation struggling to cope with a second lockdown. Much hangs on the outcome of a clinical trial involving more than 43,000 people in six countries. Nevertheless, it is little wonder that this development boosted many stocks with some markets breaking new records.

Ten months into the global pandemic, optimism is needed. But let’s be under no illusions. The scale of the work involved with manufacturing, delivering and organising the administration of a vaccine to 67 million citizens is immense, and almost certainly beyond the capabilities of a profit-focused, free-market economy. And, to beat the virus, a similar operation must be mounted in all nations. Covid will not follow smallpox into the medical history books if rich countries like the UK adopt a selfish, nationalistic approach to public health.

Despite the incontrovertible fact that vaccines work, another obstacle has appeared on the road to progress. Scientifically, it is beyond doubt that vaccines work – unless you subscribe to the bizarre views advanced by the so-called ‘anti-vaxers’, that is.

Vaccine hesitancy is not new. Many will be familiar with the illustration created by the British satirist James Gillray. In 1802, Gillray portrayed the unfortunate recipients of Edward Jenner’s new smallpox vaccine with cows erupting, Alien-style, from various parts of their bodies. Jenner’s breakthrough involved deliberately infecting patients with cowpox, a related infection that when transmitted to milkmaids via open cuts on the hands was found to provide protection against smallpox.

Despite Gillray’s unhelpful intervention, Jenner’s new vaccine (the word derives from ‘vacca’, the Latin word for cow) proved to be the first crucial step on the journey to the eventual eradication of smallpox 180 years later. Gillray’s famous illustration was available only to a small, elite audience. Nonetheless, it prompted alarm and raised doubts. But science prevailed. Jenner secured his place as the founder of what we now describe as immunology. Gillray, who received a secret pension from William Pitt’s Tory government, is now recognised as the first political cartoonist.

Whilst they may be small in number, the modern anti-vaxer has access to communication channels beyond Gillray’s wildest dreams. Herein lies the challenge. Groundless conspiracy theories about a Covid vaccine have been popping up on social media timelines for months. Inevitably, last week’s announcement has reignited pre-existing storylines all over the internet. Pseudoscience thrives in a world where confidence in all institutions has waned, egged on by irresponsible, usually right-wing politicians and journalists. Social media has made things worse.

Freedom of speech is precious, and people are entitled to their own opinions. That said, they are not entitled to their own facts. Social media companies must accept that they have a moral responsibility and a public duty not to undermine public health initiatives that rely on mass participation. False scare stories that have no basis in scientific fact cost lives. Companies that will not block or promptly remove damaging content should face severe financial or criminal penalties.

Vaccination is not compulsory in the UK. Citizens cannot be forcibly vaccinated. Either the person getting the immunisation or someone with parental responsibility for them must consent for immunisation to take place. The first duty of any government is to protect its people from harm. This requires taking a hard line on those who give the oxygen of publicity to the anti-vax conspiracy theorists and cranks. The Labour Party stance on this issue is the correct one.