Letters: Sharing the blame for MMR scare - The Guardian 2nd September 2008

Undoubtedly the media must take a large share of the blame for the MMR debacle (MMR was the biggest science story in years - and a hoax, August 30), but the biggest culprit must surely be the government. Confronted with the sudden publicity for Andrew Wakefield's research, the response of any sensible authority would be to acknowledge that it raised issues of concern to all parents, to announce that further research would be put in hand as a matter of urgency and to promise that, in spite of having the utmost confidence in the triple vaccination, it would offer the option of single jabs if parents wished. This would almost certainly have meant that the story would have been forgotten within a few weeks.

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Additional Story

The scientist who started the MMR hoax faces the GMC - but who will hold the media to account, asks Ben Goldacre - The Guardian 30th August 2008