Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock has requested new legislation to force social media companies to ban content promoting false information about vaccines.
Unfortunately, the amount of anti-vaccine sentiment on social media has been growing in recent years, increasing concerns that it is having a negative impact on the way vaccines are being perceived.
MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine uptake is declining in many countries (including the US). The reason for this is not clear. Rates dipped in the 1990s following publication of a report linking MMR to autism, but partly recovered after that research was discredited and disproved.
Recently, an outbreak of mumps in universities across Nottingham have infected more than 200 students. So far, there have been 40 confirmed cases of the infection and 223 suspected cases reported at Nottingham Trent and the University of Nottingham.
Measures have been taken, according to Facebook, which included rejecting ads with misinformation about vaccines and not showing misleading content on hashtag pages.
Public Health England is now working with the universities and advising students and young adults to make sure they are up to date with the MMR vaccine.
For some several years Harrow Health Care Centre has advocated the use of the MMR vaccines to be offered to teenagers particularly those about to attend University where the incidences of measles, mumps and rubella can be contracted.
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