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Immunisation 4/5

 Each group will receive a briefing sheet and have enough time to become familiar with who they will be representing during the discussion.  Different groups will be given different facts, some of which they may choose not to share  This is exactly how it would (and did) work in the real world.

 In your groups, you will need to discuss the roles you are to play.  You will be sharing ‘your’ opinion on the MMR vaccination and whether you would recommend it to the parents of a young child.  What would you recommend?  How will you persuade them that you are correct?

 You will be trying to persuade the rest of the class to make a particular decision about MMR vaccination.  There are several strategies you could use but no matter what your arguments, you will need to speak clearly and listen to each other.

 Although the national vaccination programme is not voted on, in the UK parents make individual decisions about their children’s vaccinations.  As well as making your choice (Yes or No to MMR vaccination for your ‘child’) you will need to predict the class result.

 In the UK, about 85% of two-year-olds received their MMR from 2007 to  How does this compare to the class results?  Which of the groups most influenced your decision?  Could we apply this to improve UK vaccination rates?  Should we?

 You are a team of family doctors at a surgery.  You provide the MMR vaccination and have access to the latest evidence showing it is both safe and effective.  Over the last year you have had several unvaccinated patients who went on to catch measles and mumps.

 You are the team that includes Andrew Wakefield.  Your recent paper has suggested a link between MMR and symptoms of autism.  Families suing the vaccine company are paying you for advice in their case.  You have patented a single measles vaccine which could replace the MMR version

 Your 1-month-old baby girl died of measles; she was too young to be vaccinated.  She caught it from the son of one of your friends.  He had not been vaccinated because his parents were worried about side-effects. (based on genuine case of Dana McCaffery)

 You are a team of alternative health practitioners who have a general policy to recommend against vaccination.  You believe that lifestyle choices (e.g. diet and exercise) contribute to a strong immune system.  You provide ‘preventative’ treatments for people of all ages.

 Your four-year-old has recently been diagnosed with autism.  He first started to show signs of the condition around the age of 18 months.  This was around the same time that he received the MMR vaccination.  You believe there is a link and contribute articles to websites that campaign for a limit to vaccinations due to claimed side-effects.

 Your team are experts in infectious diseases at the Health Protection Agency.  Mumps is a particular problem with almost 8000 cases in 2009, up from a low of around 100 annually in the mid-90s. Around 10% of sufferers will develop meningitis.  You know that if less than 95% of the population is vaccinated there will be regular outbreaks in the population.