Oldham GP takes a jab at fake news and vaccination hesitation

Dr Zahid Chauhan

Rumours that flu jabs cause illness are giving medics the needle and risking the lives of the young and the old – warns Oldham medic, Dr Zahid Chauhan.

The national health campaigner also claimed that “scare mongering online nonsense” is preventing older folks from receiving pneumonia inoculations and children vital first protection against measles, mumps and rubella.

And he is not alone with his dire warnings. Because the World Health Organisation has put vaccination hesitation in their top ten of world health dangers.

Chauhan was speaking a the start of the flu jab campaign and in the wake of research by the Wellcome Trust revealing that 21% of people weren't convinced that vaccines were safe. 

He said that totally untrue claims that the Measles Mumps and Rubella (MMR) jab caused Autism hung like an “albatross” around vaccinations, adding, “The undermining of confidence in vaccines has created a culture of fear and in some cases laxness, with people feeling they are a waste of time.

"Examine history to see how Jenner's protection eradicated smallpox or how once killer conditions have been quelled both here and in the Developing World.

“Diseases such as polio have almost disappeared because of vaccinations and by getting a measles jab you are not only protecting yourself, but everyone else you might come into contact with – especially pregnant women."

Amongst the free injection's offered by the NHS, are, the flu jab which is free for those with life-long conditions such as COPD, the pneumonia vaccine for those over 65 or with existing chest conditions, cervical cancer protection for 12-13 year-olds and Shingles vaccines for the over 70's.

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