The incidence of measles in parts of Britain is rising ominously as the number of children formerly inoculated against the disease falls to the level which risks an epidemic. In short, we could be on the verge of a major public-health disaster. Unlike past epidemics, children of the educated middle class will be most at risk.

In an era when authority is distrusted and whistle-blowers are seen as heroes, a growing proportion of middle-class families disbelieves government and collective medical advice that the MMR vaccine is safe. Instead, they believe scaremongering stories that there may be a link between the MMR vaccine and autism and refuse to inoculate their children, thus laying the foundation of what one day may be a major epidemic.

The whistleblower whose name will be forever associated with the proposition that MMR may be linked to autism is Dr Andrew Wakefield, lionised in a recent foolish Channel 4 docudrama and whose co-authored 1998 paper in the Lancet sparked the panic. His fellow authors have disowned the paper but further evidence has emerged to cast doubt on the validity of the research. Dr Wakefield had not told the Lancet that he had received some £55,000 from the Legal Aid Board to investigate grounds for legal action by parents of allegedly vaccine-damaged children. Worse, it is feared that he was advising the parents of some of the children upon whom his medical research was drawn.

The Lancet now says that had it known of the conflict of interest it would not have published the research and will publish an updated commentary as soon as possible. So it should. But this is closing the stable door six years too late. Colossal damage has been done and hundreds of thousands of children may be at risk of serious disease. The Lancet must introduce a rigorous and transparent process for establishing conflicts of interest. And the media and society need to exercise caution in the face of claims from whistleblowers. Sometimes they, too, have an agenda.