For an example of what spreading unfounded scares and rumours about vaccination can do, look at what has happened in Nigeria with regards to the polio vaccine. Rumours were spread around the country that the vaccine was contaminated with HIV or that it made you infertile. As a result vaccination levels plummeted, resulting a very high rate of polio in the country, at a time when it was looking possible that the disease could be totally eradicated.

Similarly, in the 70's in the uk, there was a scare story that the whooping cough vaccine could cause brain damage. Take up of the vaccine fell to below 50% and cases of whooping cough rose, and people died as a direct result of the media whipping up this scare story.

Luckily, despite the persistence of the idea that MMR causes autism, vaccination levels have fallen, but not so low as to cause major outbreaks.

For anyone (yokel) that doubts whether levels of illnesses have fallen as a direct result of vaccination, I will look out some graphs that show it conclusively and post them later.

The lies that are spread by the anti vaccination lobby are criminal in my opinion.