Good Morning Britain viewers today slammed a shouting mother who claimed the MMR vaccine ‘doesn’t work’ in a row with a doctor on television.
Biba Tanya appeared on the ITV show in a controversial segment about the MMR vaccine but soon began talking over the hosts and other guests.
As well as incorrectly claiming the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine doesn’t work, she claimed ‘measles isn’t a serious condition’.
Dr Hilary Jones, GMB’s resident doctor, quickly corrected her claims, which have sparked outrage on Twitter.
Viewers have called Ms Tanya a ‘screaming banshee’, ‘a deluded old b****’, ‘nasty’ and ‘very aggressive’.
The MMR vaccine has been proven to be safe and effective, and has been routinely given to children in the UK for decades, preventing thousands of deaths.
Biba Tanya (pictured centre, beside Catherine Cooper, who was pro-vaccination, and Good Morning Britain’s Dr Hilary Jones, right) has sparked outrage online after claiming the MMR vaccine ‘doesn’t work’ and shouting over other guests on the show this morning
Ms Tanya, a mother-of-three, appeared on the show alongside another mother, Catherine Cooper, who was in favour of vaccination but struggled to get a word in.
Having been on the show before to discuss home-schooling her children, claiming she can do a better job than teachers, Ms Tanya said: ‘I know the vaccine doesn’t work.’
She said her own child had been ‘damaged’ by the vaccine, being hospitalised with suspected meningitis after having the jab and catching measles in spite of being vaccinated.
Ms Tanya claimed measles is ‘not a killer disease in a healthy child’, arguing that children who had died in the past had been unhealthy to begin with.
This was disputed by Dr Hilary, who said measles is ‘absolutely’ a serious condition and can kill children.
After being told to calm down by GMB host, Ben Shephard, Ms Tanya continued: ‘I want my child to develop their immune system.
‘You can put nine viruses into an eight week old baby [and] their immune system’s strong enough to withstand that but it’s not strong enough to withstand measles?’
Dr Hilary said: ‘Anyone who wants to go back to the pre-vaccination era is really not understanding what science has achieved.’
Viewers quickly took to Twitter to slam Ms Tanya’s attitude and ‘ignorance’.
One user called Lee said: ‘What a deluded old b**** that is.’
Twitter user Lee called Ms Tanya a ‘deluded old b****’ and suggested the show’s presenters were all having the same thought
Dr Leah, a qualified doctor and former winner of The Apprentice, said: ‘Biba is dangerously wrong here. It is scary to see her inaccurate argument actually be aired on TV
Dr Leah, a qualified doctor and former winner of The Apprentice, said: ‘Biba is dangerously wrong here.
‘It is scary to see her inaccurate argument actually be aired on TV.
‘I hope no mum’s [sic] watching this are impressionable enough to listen to this nonsense versus the clearly established medical evidence to support vaccinating your child.’
User Carly Pierro added: ‘That woman was an abomination … Shouting screaming and getting aggressive with her “facts” she probably found on a Facebook group.’
Hilary Philip tweeted: ‘Nothing wrong with feeling passionate about your beliefs but come on, a bit of decorum less looking like a wee screaming banshee’.
Ms Tanya brought cancer into her argument, saying the MMR vaccines ‘haven’t been tested for carcinogenic effects’.
Vaccination rates, now at 91 per cent in the UK, fell after the publication of a study by Andrew Wakefield in 1998 which claimed the jab could cause autism.
The study has found to be wrong and Wakefield was struck off and banned from practising medicine in the UK – he now lives in the US, where the ‘anti-vaxxer’ movement continues.
But experts continue to hammer home that the vaccine is safe and it works – saying those who believe otherwise are ‘absolutely wrong’.
In response to Ms Tanya’s outburst, Chris Manning tweeted: ‘Vaccines save millions every year. I can’t believe in this day and age we’re actually debating this.’
Sally Plummer, who claimed to be a nurse and a mother, added: ‘It’s ill informed individuals like Biba who’s spouting of ignorant propaganda puts the health of our whole society at risk.’
A user called Koren tweeted: ‘People that get so crazy and passionate in a group discussion do not get taken seriously and just look nasty and deluded!’
User Carly Pierro added: ‘That woman was an abomination’, suggesting she got her ideas about vaccination from a Facebook group instead of using scientific facts
Chris Manning tweeted: ‘I can’t believe in this day and age we’re actually debating this’
Sally Plummer, a nurse and mother, said people holding Ms Tanya’s views are ‘putting the health of our whole society at risk’
A user called koren said Ms Tanya was ‘very aggressive’ and was acting ‘crazy’ – people should trust doctors instead, she said
Polly Stanley said her own children had measles and she ‘wouldn’t wish it on any child’
Martin Van Buren took issue with GMB showcasing the discussion and giving airtime to anti-vaccine views, which he said ‘could cost lives’
Polly Stanley wrote: ‘I couldn’t have my children vaccinated against measles for medical reasons and they were so poorly when they got it’.
While others took issue with GMB even having a discussion on the issue in the first place, saying it’s dangerous to spread ideas about vaccines being unsafe.
Martin Van Buren tweeted: ‘There isn’t a “Debate” to be had on this one. This is irresponsible to the max, you could cost lives with this.’
IS ANDREW WAKEFIELD’S DISCREDITED AUTISM RESEARCH TO BLAME FOR LOW MEASLES VACCINATION RATES?
Andrew Wakefield’s discredited autism research has long been blamed for a drop in measles vaccination rates
In 1995, gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield published a study in The Lancet showing children who had been vaccinated against MMR were more likely to have bowel disease and autism.
He speculated that being injected with a ‘dead’ form of the measles virus via vaccination causes disruption to intestinal tissue, leading to both of the disorders.
After a 1998 paper further confirmed this finding, Wakefield said: ‘The risk of this particular syndrome [what Wakefield termed ‘autistic enterocolitis’] developing is related to the combined vaccine, the MMR, rather than the single vaccines.’
At the time, Wakefield had a patent for single measles, mumps and rubella vaccines, and was therefore accused of having a conflict of interest.
Nonetheless, MMR vaccination rates in the US and the UK plummeted, until, in 2004 the then-editor of The Lancet Dr Richard Horton described Wakefield’s research as ‘fundamentally flawed’, adding he was paid by attorneys seeking lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers.
The Lancet formally retracted Wakefield’s research paper in 2010.
Three months later, the General Medical Council banned Wakefield from practicing medicine in Britain, stating his research had shown a ‘callous disregard’ for children’s health.
On January 6 2011, The British Medical Journal published a report showing that of the 12 children included in Wakefield’s 1995 study, at most two had autistic symptoms post vaccination, rather than the eight he claimed.
At least two of the children also had developmental delays before they were vaccinated, yet Wakefield’s paper claimed they were all ‘previously normal’.
Further findings revealed none of the children had autism, non-specific colitis or symptoms within days of receiving the MMR vaccine, yet the study claimed six of the participants suffered all three.