My (repeated) Challenge to Damian Thompson

On 10th May I posted the following:

'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. '

 

Mr Thompson has in today's Daily Telegraph and his blog (15th June)  repeated without moderation or qualification, his assertion that I 'scared' parents over the MMR long after it was established that there were no risks from this injection, which he calls a 'disgrace' . Unsurprisingly, I reject the charge.

I repeat my offer to him.

I will publish here his detailed charges against me. I will then attempt to rebut them, and continue to offer him space to reply to me until we have argued each other to a standstill, or the issue is settled (I can see now that there might be some fundamental disagreement about interpretation of terms, but the discussion will be held, as it were, before a jury of our peers).