Johnson launches anti-vaxxer crusade as measles outbreak grips UK

The British government has launched a campaign to combat misleading information spread by people opposed to vaccines, after the UK lost its “measles-free” status with the World Health Organization.

PM Boris Johnson announced on Monday that, along with other measures, parents who have concerns over the jabs will be given new evidence-based advice to correct any false information they may have learned. 

Downing Street said it hopes the campaign will boost the rate of children who are fully vaccinated against measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR), from 87 percent up to 95 percent. 

The push comes as the UK finds itself in the midst of a measles crisis. There have already been 231 cases of measles in the UK in the first quarter of 2019. Earlier this year a Unicef report warned that half a million British children were not immunised against measles between 2010 and 2017. The spike caused Britain to lose its World Health Organization (WHO) “measles-free” status just three years after the virus was declared eliminated.

Britain isn’t alone in its fight against the age-old viral illness; Johnson called the effort a “global challenge.” There have been 364,808 measles cases reported around the world so far this year.

France, the most anti-vaccine nation in the world, with a third of the nation expressing distrust of the jab, last year made vaccinations compulsory. While the US is battling the greatest outbreak of measles since 1992 with 1,203 individual cases so far in 2019. 

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