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CTV News
3 hours ago
- Climate
- CTV News
Lightning and disaster fatigue: Wildfires have Princeton residents on edge
In Princeton, B.C., three fires burning near the town are causing heightened anxiety in a community that has seen its share of extreme weather events in recent
Phone Arena
4 hours ago
- General
- Phone Arena
AT&T Too Good to Be True
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CBC
5 hours ago
- Climate
- CBC
Growing Manitoba wildfires force thousands to flee south
With more than 100 wildfires burning in the province, Manitoba is preparing to shelter thousands more wildfire evacuees as residents of two more First Nations in the Island Lake region look to head south.
CTV News
5 hours ago
- CTV News
Body of missing boater found in northern Alberta
Edmonton Watch The body of a missing boater on Lesser Slave Lake has been found thanks to an outpouring of help from the community.
Telegraph
6 hours ago
- Health
- Telegraph
Britain is facing a measles epidemic because parents no longer believe in science
Sharp conversational swerves: every parent is adept at these. One minute you're enjoying an amiable chat with another parent at the school gates, the next you're hurtling towards some contentious topic at high speed. Unless you know the other person well, you don't want to be going anywhere near smartphone use right now (it's extraordinary how ferociously parents will defend their own cowardice around excessive phone usage, particularly in a post- Adolescence era). Consequently, books and reading have also become hot-button topics and up there with sugar, which is absurd. But ever since Covid, the real social powder keg has, of course, been childhood vaccines. A couple of months ago, I was too late with my swerve, and the unthinkable happened: Andrew Wakefield's name was mentioned. There it sat, a fizzing grenade between us, while this (intelligent) mother of two explained to me that she didn't believe in the concept of herd immunity and had refused the MMR vaccine for both of her children – you know, on account of the autism link. As a journalist who was taught to triple-check every fact – and then check it again – I have a very low patience threshold when it comes to the casual lobbing of inaccuracies. I may even have held up a professorial index as I explained what I'm sure this woman already knew: that Wakefield's infamous 1998 paper was found to be based on scientific misconduct, with the studies fraudulent and the data misrepresented. That as a result, it was retracted. That in terms of scientific record, in terms of science, Wakefield's 'findings' do not exist. At this point, the woman shrugged, crossed her arms, and said something that has stayed with me: 'Yeah, well, what he wrote confirmed everything I've always felt in my gut to be true.' I thought about the ramifications of that statement yesterday, as I read about the child who tragically died at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool last week, after having contracted measles. This is the second child to have succumbed to an acute measles infection in Britain this decade. A shocking statistic when you consider that this is an entirely preventable disease and that just eight years ago, the UK had achieved measles elimination status. Now, while we don't know the age, gender or general health of the child, we do know that they were one of 17 youngsters treated at the hospital in recent weeks after becoming severely unwell with measles. We know from an Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust spokesman that the hospital is extremely concerned by an 'increasing number of children contracting measles', and we know from campaigns the NHS has been forced to launch in recent years that uptake of all childhood immunisations has seen a consistent decline, with the MMR vaccine uptake in particular now at its lowest level since the early 2010s. If only this were just a Covid hangover. If only the rest of the drop in uptake could be blamed on vaccine hesitancy in migrant communities, which is undoubtedly also a factor. Even the scourge of misinformation could (and should) be vigorously fought against in various ways – although it's depressing that adults are now statistically more inclined to fall for it than youngsters (as schools now teach children how to spot disinformation). But what we're witnessing is, I suspect, something far harder to fight, and that's the triumph of feeling over fact. Feelings are no longer simply used to interpret inner sensations. Today, they validate our beliefs – even if those beliefs came from TikTok. Have a look at the online message boards and the comments section of any article relating to the MMR and you'll see the same kind of language used by that mother of two. It doesn't matter what the doctors and scientists say, or what the potential perils are: what these people 'feel to be true' trumps any factual evidence offered up. Why do you think celebrities have such influence on this subject? Because they feel harder than anyone else. They 'speak feelings' better too. Paediatric hospitals the world over must have wept when vaccine-cautious US actress Jenny McCarthy said: 'Ask 99.9 per cent of parents who have children with autism if we'd rather have the measles versus autism – we'd sign up for the measles.' Because those are the options? It also doesn't seem to matter that those who are refusing to vaccinate their children have largely benefited from herd immunity themselves. In fact, ironically, I think it may make them more dangerous, since they have never experienced or witnessed the ravages of these diseases first-hand. I would never wish either of those things on anyone, so how does one impress the seriousness of the situation on a privileged but oblivious demographic?
