I guess from just hearing both sides of the story and also hearing about the fact that this was a very small sample size I think that really made me doubt that if, because the thing is, the MMR has been taken by children not just in England but, you know, in so many countries in the whole world I mean, if you think about how many children have taken it, it must be millions if not billions of children who’ve had it and so if you compare that with twelve cases then I just didn’t think that was and I guess, I guess Radio Four was quite, they did show both, both arguments, so I just a, and maybe as well the papers that made such a big fuss about it are not really the papers that I read and maybe not as reputable.

Well I think there were so many I didn’t really know where to trust and you know and there was so much, everyone was saying ‘Oh it causes autism,’ I didn’t feel that, I didn’t know who to trust, I couldn’t trust them really because you don’t really know where they’re coming from.

I know theres so much hype that comes up and you don’t really know, so in the end I just sort of didn’t really take, pay any attention to them and I just decided to. And then of course it did all come out in the end, the big report that it wasn’t necessarily a well founded, there was no evidence anyway really. And that was quite a relief then at that point. In some ways, I was sort of like you know ‘Oh, good, so I did make the right decision. Because I think when I had her vaccinated, when I had my daughter vaccinated it wasn’t really you know it wasn’t quite clear. Yes it was very difficult to know who to trust and who to go to at the time.

I suppose a lot of the way it was presented in the media was sensationalising it and that kind of tends to put me off, not put me off but I tend not to believe the sensationalisation of things that I, that I read and hear in the papers. But it, it does concern you because you know what, what if there was but I think I’m more prone to believe that there is no link.

I guess because of the papers that it was, that it was in and it was in a lot of the tabloids and if you read the broadsheets there was a much more reasoned argument and they weren’t saying you know that there was a link, it was very much The Mail and The Express and maybe a bit Government-bashing, a good excuse to say the Government weren’t being honest and things like that, and I tend to take those things with a pinch of salt. So, so yeah. I mean I don’t know that it, I still don’t know a hundred percent that it’s not, that there isn’t but I think the proof you know the overwhelming evidence is that there, there isn’t a link.

I think partly because I work in healthcare, and noticing how healthcare is sometimes portrayed in the media, and in scare stories. I’m really wary of, of anything that suggests links between things, or it, that, it just really seemed quite, you know, out of all proportion. And there really didn’t seem any particular evidence, as far as I was concerned, no evidence that I was happy with that, that there was a link with autism or, you know, or bowel disease in children. I just didn’t really believe, didn’t really believe it and felt it was a lot of, as I say a lot of hype about something that really wasn’t, I don’t know, that just wasn’t believable for, for me anyway. And I think it just frightened an awful lot of people unnecessarily. And just very disappointing really, you know, that, I think, you know, I think the autism was a great, it, you know, something a lot of families have to deal with and it’s very, very difficult. But I don’t think it helped the cause any. But I think it’s detracted a lot. And it just, I suppose it made me feel quite angry in a way that, I think a lot of, when you see a lot of healthcare issues portrayed in the media and it’s quite irritating to be honest. I didn’t, I just didn’t feel there was enough evidence there to influence my decision at all.

Well, I have to say I haven’t been here when the whole MMR scare come out, I didn’t live in the UK then, so I’ve missed all that. I’ve only seen that programme that actually should have proved that it is safe. And obviously it was in a way done very scaremongering as well I have to say, because they showed this woman who lost her I think 14-month-old baby from measles and they showed actually the picture of the baby who was dead, and it was very scaremongering. And obviously my first instinct was, ‘I’m going to go and have him vaccinated tomorrow. But then just thinking about it again I got a little bit angry because they did it in such a, in such a way that was actually quite unfair because it, I think they did it on purpose to instigate some fear in you. I mean why would you show a child that is dead and lying there and the mum is crying over the, the dead body? I mean it, if you’re a mum it’s just, it’s terrible, it really is, and then obviously your first instinct is, ‘I need my, I need to protect my child.

So it, I have, I have to say, I mean I didn’t disagree with the whole programme, there were a few things that I actually thought, ‘Yes, that, that actually makes sense. But, yes, I think it’s, you have to take it with a pinch of salt, all of it.

I think they are scaring us a little bit more than they should be. I think new-time mums, everything’s a worry to you, you know, you’ve just brought a baby into the world, you feel that you can’t give this baby enough. And then theres people scaring on every aspect of having a baby, that if you give it too much of this that’s wrong, and if you do this that’s wrong. And I just feel that they should be more careful who they’re scaring because you just want to protect this little human being that you’ve created and you’d do anything not to… And I think some of the reports just aren’t accurate enough, just some of your normal papers, your daily papers you just think, ‘You’ve just scared me from that, that one comment. Whereas wheres the fact, wheres the professor saying it or, you know, wheres the evidence?’ I know some people will just read it and go, ‘Right, that’s that, theres no more jabs in my baby’ you know. And it’s easy to do that. I think they have scared a lot of people out of it. A few of my friends are scared. I’m scared but I’ve put it to the back of my mind because I know I’m doing the right thing.

So I think it is very, very, very important here and everywhere else to educate people, to inform them. Not misinform them, which is what the media usually does. If you buy a tabloid, they just care about selling papers, and the best way to sell them is to shout horrible stories, you know, and, and pick the one in a million case where something went wrong, instead of stressing that the other 999,999 actually didn’t have any problems and were protected, yes. The media are always using sensation to sell. But on the other hand you are the parent, you have your child to look after and you want the best for your child. You shouldn’t listen to sources of information which are not the right ones. And I think if, if we don’t know much about something, we should go and ask the right people. Theres always your GP, your health care or a nurse that can give you the information you require, can actually, not just tell it to you but give you access to documentation, where you can make your mind up by yourself without just listening to it on TV or on tabloids. So I think it’s very important to educate people the right way, to give them the proper information. And, yes, even then people are still reluctant to do that well it’s very difficult. But I think in this case of the MMR vaccine there was a lot of misinformation, which led to people having these problems.

Well certainly the fact that, that it has been talked about in the media is what will make me want to acquire information. But I will go to the original articles rather than just using the information from the media, yes.

And why is that?

Well because the, the media necessarily can, can give only part of the information. Theres, there are space constraints, there are information constraints that statistics are complicated to present and, and the media may play a role in alerting to the fact that there are studies which show that there is a statistical risk, I want to go and see what is the extent of this statistical risk. And I want to know exactly what studies have been, have been done and, and on what populations and what are their findings.