Main content

Vaccines: The Importance of The Herd and Social Media

What proportion of a population needs to be vaccinated to stop a disease spreading?

The World Health Organisation has reported that so far this year over 47,000 adults and children in the European area have been infected with measles. For the whole of 2017 there were almost 24,000 cases and in 2016 the figure was 5,273. So why are the numbers growing? We speak to experts about how herd immunity, government policy and social media can affect infection rates.

Presenter: Lizzy McNeill
Producer: Lizzy McNeill

(image: Vials of measles, mumps and rubella vaccine on display at Walgreens in Mill Valley, California. Photo Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Available now

9 minutes

Last on

Tue 30 Oct 2018 02:50GMT
91福利社 World Service except News Internet

More episodes

Previous

Foreign Aid: Who鈥檚 The Most Generous?

Next

Timing a Tsunami

See all episodes from More or Less

Broadcasts

  • Sun 28 Oct 2018 19:50GMT
    91福利社 World Service except East and Southern Africa & News Internet
  • Mon 29 Oct 2018 13:50GMT
    91福利社 World Service except News Internet
  • Tue 30 Oct 2018 02:50GMT
    91福利社 World Service except News Internet

Unlock the history and truth behind the data with The OU

Explore how numbers shape, and sometimes mislead us, with The Open University.

When can you trust statistics?

When can you trust statistics?

91福利社 Ideas discovers three easy ways to help make sense of statistics.

Podcast

  • More or Less

    Tim Harford explains the numbers and statistics used in everyday life