During a visit to a medical centre in east London, the Prime Minister asked staff what they thought of anti-vaxxers, adding: “There’s all these anti-vaxxers now. They are nuts, they are nuts.”
It comes after several polls have suggested some Britons are feeling apprehensive about having a Covid-19 vaccine.
A coronavirus jab is seen by many experts as a key route out of the pandemic.
We're expanding eligibility for the flu vaccination programme.
More info on who can now get it:
➡️ https://t.co/K4J5p4bRW8
This expansion is part of our plan to protect the NHS this winter. You can help by getting a flu vaccination if eligible.#VaccinesWork | #ValueofVaccines— Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) July 24, 2020
The anti-vaccination movement has been growing globally in recent years, fuelled in part by social media.
A paper published in The Lancet in 1998 by Dr Andrew Wakefield – and since widely discredited – suggested a link between the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism in children, which led to a huge drop in MMR vaccine rates.
Last year, the World Health Organisation identified “vaccine hesitancy” as one of the top 10 health threats to the world.
