A Challenge to Mr Thompson



1.    Damian Thompson, the Daily Telegraph columnist, has stated on Twitter: ‘Peter Hitchens's record on MMR is shameful. Even now he seems chiefly concerned (as ever) w[ith] protecting his own reputation.’

 

This follows the publication of a letter from me in today’s Daily Telegraph, in which I say : ‘SIR – Damian Thompson (May 4) calls me a ‘scaremonger’ on the subject of the MMR vaccine.  I believe he is mistaken. The article he attacks was published nearly three years after the launch of the Wakefield study which began the controversy, which was taken seriously by many different parts of the media, and had not yet been discredited at the time.   It stated unequivocally ‘There is no proof that MMR causes or has ever caused autism, or the severe bowel disorder Crohn's disease’. It was mainly a plea for the availability on the NHS of the single measles vaccine to ensure continuing widespread immunity, a policy I still believe would have been wise. I might add that I may not ‘play down’ my influence, but I have never made any great claims for it either.

 

I have invited Mr Thompson (also via Twitter) to justify his assertion, and offered him the hospitality of this site to do so. I repeat this offer here.