Me being, y'know, obsessed with Stephen Fry, I follow him on Twitter and I recently saw a link to Dr Ben Goldacre who had got into trouble over a clip of a certain radio show about the MMR vaccine. He seemed like a reasonable, inoffensive chap so I had a listen to the actual clip to see what all the fuss was about (yes, the LBC had made him take it down, but other sites have it). Quite frankly I was astonished by what appeared to me as simple arrant nonsense being peddled as fact by the broadcaster, so I got very indignant and wrote a somewhat long-winded letter. But now I don't know who on earth to send it to, so I need your help. I really will send it, if someone tells me where to go!

Dear LBC

I’m terribly sorry if this comes across as rude, but I’d like to take issue with some points raised during a recent discussion of the MMR vaccine.

I’m only 16 so I have very little specific medical knowledge of the vaccine itself but I’m pretty sure the diseases the vaccine should prevent can be incredibly serious to those who contract them. While I can see that an adverse reaction to the vaccine is far worse than the mere possibility of catching one of the diseases, would it not be wrong to prevent the majority of children, who don’t suffer an allergic reaction, from having access to a potentially life-saving vaccine simply because their parents have been frightened away by rumours?

I believe I heard your broadcaster say that one reason not to take the vaccine was that childhood illnesses are there to help children’s immune systems grow stronger. A vaccine, so far as I am aware, is a weakened or smaller version of the natural virus, which should be easy for a child to fight of thus improving their immune system should they encounter such a disease again. Since this is identical to your broadcaster’s argument against vaccines, surely you can see how incorrect her point was?

Modern medicine is clearly not all bad – in the late 1800s, ‘flu could kill you. ‘Flu. Now treatable so easily that only the prodigiously unfortunate die from it. As to the argument for traditional medicines versus ‘scientific’ ones, it simply does not make sense. The smallpox vaccination began life as the tradition of rubbing healthy people in the clothes of those who died from smallpox, thus introducing them to a weakened form of the disease that their bodies could fight off exactly as a modern vaccination does.

Of course, undue risks should not be taken, especially if other family members have suffered allergic reactions to the vaccine, as this would suggest a genetic intolerance. However, nurses and doctors administering the vaccine are fully-trained professionals who should be well able to take care of a crisis.

The risks of side effects are hardly overwhelming but they have been blown up out of all proportion, in part by slightly sensationalist broadcasting, as I believe was demonstrated on this program. This is leading to many children not being immunised, meaning that should there ever be an outbreak of measles, mumps or rubella, a vast number of people will be affected that could have escaped had they been vaccinated.

I am always in favour of people making their own decisions, but to make these decisions, they must have access to all the facts and should not be unduly influenced by the media. I also cannot understand why Ben Goldacre is not allowed to post a clip from the show on his site, as it isn’t the entire show. To me this suggests an attempt to hide away from debate that should be encouraged. If you are not ashamed of this material, why this refusal to let everyone hear it?

Yours, most sincerely,

Lizzie C