Measles vaccine rates are higher in Scotland than in England

HPV is responsible for almost all cases of cervical cancer, the fourth most common type of cancer in women.

The vaccine is still young, as are the women who have received it so far, but what a win - for women, for science.

But this week sees a tale of two vaccine stories. We see the benefits of the HPV jag here, but we also see the effect of vaccine rejection.

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Stories about cases of measles being on the rise down south have been making headlines for the past week. England has now launched a national campaign to boost the uptake of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine after a surge in people becoming ill, particularly in London and the West Midlands, and particularly children.

Measles outbreaks are at the highest level since the mid-1990s and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has now declared a national incident.

The campaign will include pop-up vaccination centres in convenient locations and community leaders are being asked to encourage groups with low take-up rates to come forward, just as happened during the covid vaccine roll out.

As my colleague, our health correspondent Helen McArdle, noted in this piece, by 2017 the UK had officially "eliminated" the infection using the World Health Organisation's definition - endemic transmission had been halted.

Scotland is doing far better in terms of uptake of vaccines, but the numbers of unvaccinated children are on the rise here too, in numbers far lower but still concerning.

The picture is complex, with fingers being pointed at anti-vaxx conspiracy theorists.

People are more open to conspiracy theories in times of deep political mistrust. Look at the way the - to be frank - absolute nonsense around 15-minute cities has proliferated.

At its heart, the idea of a 15-minute - or 20-minute - city is that residents will be able to have everything they need on their doorsteps: health facilities, places to work, shop and socialise all within a short walk.

This used to be - I want to say the ideal, but it was more than ideal, it was ... normal. Frame it another way and say you have the post office, pub, dentist, GP surgery, fish mongers and bakers within a short walk. That's the kind of set up the classic conspiracy theorist would ordinarily see as a hark back to a bygone golden age.

Yet somehow the idea of a town centre has become synonymous with government control and a life of permanent lockdown where you can't meet your friends or move freely.

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You wonder, on that note, how many people who subscribe to the 15-minute city conspiracy theory also voted for Brexit. We don't like free movement until we do.

It's all exacerbated by the pandemic. Emergency lockdowns have sparked fears that the government will lock us down permanently.

Mass, compelled vaccinations at a time when trust in politics and in our elected representatives is at an all-time low lead easily to charges that the covid vaccine is dangerous.

"Vaccines are bio-weapons" reads one of the placards in a photograph of anti-covid vaccine marches from our archive. In the late 1990s, the disgraced anti-vaccine activist Andrew Wakefield pushed the theory - now debunked - that the MMR vaccine causes autism. Parents declined the vaccine for their children as a result and a certain nervousness around the vaccine has never gone away.

The pushback against the covid vaccine has bled into rising opposition to the MMR; theories around them have merged.

Health officials have to go up against social media platforms sharing misinformation and online forums such as parent Facebook groups pushing scare stories - good luck dealing with that.

It's astonishing how scare stories linger. I'm having an MMR jag at the weekend and a friend I mentioned it to –who is otherwise sensible – counselled me against it for no reason grounded in fact at all. The link between the MMR and autism are long, long debunked.

I should say, as an aside and in defence of Ma Stewart, I had my single childhood measles inoculation but have been told I need a top up on that.

Rather than my practice nurse giving me the injection, my consultant had to refer me to my GP who then referred me to a central vaccination centre. The delay has only been six weeks and doesn't much matter when you're in a city and everything is on your doorstep.

But having a system where GP practices no longer administer vaccines seems like it would be an obvious source of logistical headaches in rural areas.

Which is another major factor in the decrease in vaccinations. It's easy enough to point at vaccine hesitancy but a lack of NHS resources to administer them in the first place is a major factor that has been highlighted by patients too.

It seems that effort is needed at both ends - official and community - to meet in the middle and ensure everyone who needs to be is protected from disease.

I go back to vaccinations being a beautiful thing. I remember the relief of watching my mother be vaccinated with the covid jab. It felt like a tiny vial of magic, liquid cavalry after a long, solo battle to keep her safe during lockdown. The relief. I cried.

Yet fear, distrust and logistics stand in the way of life saving drugs. Maybe this latest outbreak of measles will be a tipping point to persuade sceptics that vaccines are safe and prompt longer term resources to counter the practical barriers to accessing vaccines.

Cervical cancer might be eliminated thanks to a 10-second event occurring in a school gym hall. Children will not die of the measles thanks to a little jag in the arm. Even those of a more scientific and less poetic bent might have their minds blown by that.