Top advisor hits out over MMR & GM foods

The Government's top scientific advisor Sir David King has lashed out at the media for scaring parents over the MMR injection and GM foods. Focussing particularly on the Daily Mail and BBC Radio 4's Today programme for criticism, Sir David told MPs on the Innovation, Universities and Skills select committee that negative publicity over MMR could lead to the deaths of between 50-100 children.

He also said the ongoing campaign against genetically modified food has cost the UK economy between two and four billlion pounds. Sir David singled out Today presenter John Humphrys over his persistent attacks on GM food, saying 'What a massive shot in the foot that was for the UK economy.'

He admitted he thought the Daily Mail had ran a 'brilliant campaign' on GM by using the word 'Frankenfood' which 'brought through all the fears, these gut fears about tinkering with the genetic code and these mad scientists in their laboratories.'

In fact the word was first used in the New York Times in 1992, some six years before the Daily Mail picked up on it.

Sir David said GM food offered humanity a chance to create a third agricultural revolution which could allow the human race to feed itself despite climate change.

On MMR he said 'My charge here is that your highly successful campaign has potentially led to a situation where we could have 50 or 100 children dying of measles in the UK.' Uptake of MMR has fallen sufficiently enough that low vaccine coverage in some areas means measles could spread. All the evidence, he added, shows that MMR does not cause autism. 'That's the basic message that every parent needs to get and I would love the Daily Mail to put a headline in the paper tomorrow admitting that,' he added, telling the MPs he had written to Mail editor Paul Dacre about the paper's coverage.

The paper refused to comment on the criticisms while Today said they didn't recognise Sir David's description of their coverage.

Sir David's term as chief scientific adviser finishes at the end of the year when he will be replaced by John Beddington, a biologist from Imperial College, London.

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