A growing anti-vaccine movement in Europe, fuelled by social media and anti-establishment populists, is putting lives at risk and may be to blame for measles outbreaks surging to a 20-year high, health experts are warning.
A fresh Guardian analysis of WHO data shows that measles cases in Europe will top 60,000 this year – more than double that of 2017 and the highest this century. There have been 72 deaths, twice as many as in 2017.
Health experts warn that vaccine sceptics are driving down immunisation rates for measles, HPV against cervical cancer, flu and other diseases – and that their opinions are increasingly being amplified by social media and by rightwing populists equally sceptical of medical authorities.
The European Union’s health commissioner, Vytenis Andriukaitis, accused rightwing populist politicians of irresponsibility, peddling “fake news” about vaccine safety and stoking the climate of doubt.
Andriukaitis, a former heart surgeon, said he was very worried, adding: “Not just me – all of scientific society is concerned – epidemiologists, paediatricians, infectious disease experts and a lot of health ministers.
“It is unimaginable that we have deaths because of measles – children dying because of measles. We promised that by 2020 Europe would be measles free.”
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