The outbreaks of measles in Swansea and other places is regrettable.

The government and the NHS authorities made major errors in their responses to people who were concerned about the triple mumps, measles and rubella (MMR) vaccine in the late 1990’s.

These errors included patronising the people who were concerned, refusing to provide single antigen measles vaccine, and appearing to conceal the fact that the original government plan in 1988 was to make available the single antigen measles vaccine to the children of parents who refused the MMR vaccine.

This apparent concealment appears hypocritical.

Now vaccinators are trying to catch up and it might prove more costly than offering single vaccines as originally planned.