Amid a new outbreak of measles in England and rates of vaccination against the infectious disease dropping below critical levels in the country, one British politician believes TikTok may hold the answer
In several big cities in England, there's been a surge in measles cases in recent weeks, including in the capital London and in Birmingham, which has seen the most cases, now hitting more than 200.
There were just over 1,600 suspected cases of measles in England and Wales last year, according to recent data out by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), more than double the 735 cases in 2022 and 360 found in 2021. Health officials see this as a worrying upward trend.
Measles can in some cases prove fatal or lead to complications such as pneumonia or blindness. There are of course vaccines for the disease, including in England GSK’s Priorix, which vaccinates against measles, mumps and rubella (the so-called MMR vaccine).
It is offered in a two-dose schedule via the taxpayer-funded NHS system to newborns and preschool children, but the World Health Organization (WHO) says that 95% of all children should have MMR for herd immunity. But just 85% of children in 2022-23 had both MMR doses by the time they went to school, the lowest level in more than 12 years.
There are several issues underlying this, including a legacy of vaccine hesitancy spurred by Andrew Wakefield. He wrote a paper in the late 1990s attempting to link the MMR vaccine to autism, but these tests were later deemed “critically flawed.” The paper however garnered a lot of media attention and set back vaccine uptake for years.
There has also been a slow post-COVID catch-up program for the vaccine after appointments were stopped during the COVID lockdowns.
Birmingham MP Jess Phillips, who is a politician for the Labour Opposition party in the U.K. and in charge of the largest area with an outbreak, said in an interview with the BBC that social media may hold the answer.
In her Midlands constituency, she said many parents under the age of 40 with children, “were largely talking to each other on TikTok and that a TikTok campaign was needed to promote the MMR vaccine.”
She also believes that people, largely those on social media sites, should be held to account for spreading misinformation around vaccines, which is also partly fueling vaccine hesitancy.
“I think it's criminal when people spread that fake news because it's hurting people, it's harming people,” she said. “Frankly those people should be held to task and account for essentially causing illness in these areas.”