[The Chief Scientist (like the Chief medical Officer) is just the official mouthpiece for the Corporate agenda, the Voice of Sauron, in effect.  The first lie is the between 50 and 100 measles deaths, similar to Paul Offit claim of 3,000 in the USA.  You would have thought they could consult before they lie.  Measles vax never had any effect on measles deaths as they had declined by 99.4% (See: Measles deaths totals 1901 to vaccination) before vaccination, and if you follow the decline graph down to now it would be, what we have now, 1-2 a year.  And true to his function as an Allopathic mouthpiece he spouts this lie: "There is not one jot of evidence supporting the notion that homeopathic medicines are of any assistance whatsoever."  If any more evidence was needed he then talks up GM foods which are just a covert attempt to screw up the food chain (and don't even do what they claim to do) brought to us by a well know poisoning (eg Agent Orange, Aspartame, highly toxic Milk) corporate psychopath called Monsanto. (See: Human genocide), while throwing in another 2 lies which are the standard lying reasons for GM Foods: allow humanity to feed itself despite changes to the climate. (see: Global Warming Lie), the food shortage one Paul A. Stitt exposed when he was working for a food giant and found how to produce cheap protein out of natural gas, and promptly got the sack!
    How's this for propaganda: Adding that all the evidence now shows that the measles, mumps and rubella jab does not cause autism, he said: "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."  See: Vaccine autism quotes]

Chief scientist attacks health reporting by Today and Daily Mail
· Rejection of GM crops costs billions, adviser says
· Falling MMR uptake could cost lives of 100 children
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/dec/06/sciencenews.gmcrops

James Randerson, science correspondent
The Guardian,
Thursday December 6 2007

The government's chief scientific adviser criticised the BBC's Today programme and the Daily Mail yesterday over what he called their "campaigns" against GM food and the MMR vaccine. Sir David King said Britain's failure to adopt GM crops had cost the economy between £2bn and £4bn and that falling measles vaccination rates as a result of negative publicity about MMR would lead to between 50 and 100 child deaths.

He singled out Today's lead presenter, John Humphrys, over the current affairs programme's editorial line on GM, saying: "What a massive shot in the foot that was for the UK economy." Humphrys is known for his enthusiasm for organic farming.

King, who was speaking to MPs on the innovation, universities and skills select committee about his role, also criticised the Department of Health for part of its response to a select committee report on abortion, which he described as "embarrassing". His tenure finishes at the end of the year, when he will make way for John Beddington, a biologist at Imperial College London.

King said the Daily Mail had waged a "brilliant campaign" on GM food. "The use of the word 'Frankenfood' by the Daily Mail I would have to say was a piece of brilliant journalism. It brought through all of the fears, these gut fears, about tinkering with the genetic code and these mad scientists in their laboratories."

But, he said, GM technology offered the possibility of a third agricultural revolution, which would allow humanity to feed itself despite changes to the climate.

King criticised both news outlets again for their coverage of safety fears surrounding the MMR vaccine and autism. "My charge there 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," he said. Because uptake of MMR has fallen, vaccine coverage in some areas is low enough to allow measles to spread.

"We could still see a significant fatality rate amongst children," he said, adding that all the evidence now 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." King said he had had a private conversation with the Mail's editor, Paul Dacre, about its coverage. The Daily Mail declined to comment.

The Today programme said: "We don't recognise that description of our coverage."

King was also critical of the Department of Health. In its response to the now defunct parliamentary science and technology select committee's report into abortion it dismissed the committee's concern that the need for two doctors' signatures was causing delays in access to abortion services. The government response cited evidence that 68% of abortions take place within 10 weeks and 89% within 13 weeks.

King called this answer a "non sequitur" because the numbers having early abortions could be even higher if one doctor could authorise the procedure. "I would have to say that's thoroughly embarrassing," he said, "It's quite unacceptable."

The department came in for further criticism over its decision to allow homeopathic remedies to be licensed by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, the public body that licenses drugs.

"How can you have homeopathic medicines labelled by a department which is driven by science?" said King. "There is not one jot of evidence supporting the notion that homeopathic medicines are of any assistance whatsoever."

Backstory
Genetically modified foods were introduced into UK supermarkets in 1996 and from the start were met with scepticism from parts of the media. Despite backing for the industry from the prime minister, consumers became increasingly doubtful amid fears about the effect it would have on health and the environment. Opposition prompted the government's farm-scale trials into three crops' effects on biodiversity and the GM Nation debate, which surveyed more than 8,000 people. Both culminated in 2003. Yesterday Sir David King was scathing, saying: "What we learned from the GM Nation debate was how not to conduct debates of that kind." The Daily Mail used the phrase Frankenstein foods in a headline in February 1998, but its first use is credited to a letter in the New York Times on June 16 1992.
 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/technology/technology.html?in_article_id=500231&in_page_id=1965

The BBC's Today programme and the Daily Mail have been attacked by the Government's chief scientific adviser.

Sir David King criticised the two news outlets for their coverage of genetically-modified food and the MMR vaccine.

In one of his final public appearances before stepping down from his post, he also warned that homeopathic medicine was putting lives at risk.

Speaking before the Commons Innovation, Universities and Skills Select Committee, Sir David said Britain's failure to embrace GM crops had cost the economy up to £4billion.

Singling out John Humphrys, the main presenter of Radio Four's Today for particular criticism, he described coverage of the controversial issue as "a massive shot in the foot for the UK economy".

Sir David, who became chief scientist in 2000, said the Daily Mail had waged a "brilliant campaign" against GM food.

He told MPs: "The use of the word 'Frankenfood' by the Daily Mail I would have to say was a brilliant piece of journalism.

"It brought through all the fears, these gut fears that people had about tinkering with the genetic code and these mad scientists in their laboratories with bolts through their arms."

The chief scientist also hit out at both news organisations' coverage of the safety fears surrounding the MMR vaccine and autism.

Sir David said: "My charge there is your highly successful campaign has potentially led to a situation where we could have 50 or 100 children dying of measles in the UK.

"We could still see a significant fatality rate among children."

Adding that all the evidence now shows that the measles, mumps and rubella jab does not cause autism, he said: "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."

A Daily Mail spokesman said: "Sir David King does not understand the media. Six years ago the Mail, in common with other newspapers, highlighted the hypocrisy of Tony Blair's refusal to reveal whether his youngest child had been given the triple MMR jab, following claims by Dr Andrew Wakefield that it was linked to autism.

"We also focused on the distress of the parents who believed that their children's autism was linked to MMR and in our editorials argued that families should be given the right to ask for single jabs.

"We believe that this was an entirely legitimate subject for newspapers to raise.

"As for GM crops - so assiduously promoted by the U.S. conglomerate Monsanto - the Mail, along with Prince Charles, major environmental groups and senior researchers, has vigorously expressed grave concerns about their long-term effect on the countryside.

"We believe GM is still a matter of huge public concern."

Homeopathy, an alternative medicine publicly supported by Prince Charles, drew heavy criticism from Sir David - and a warning that it was putting lives at risk.

He said there was no evidence homeopathy did any good. Rather, it is a danger to health, because patients may mistakenly believe it can cure or treat serious illness.

"There is not one jot of evidence supporting the notion that homeopathic medicines are of any assistance whatsoever," he added.

"They are a risk to the population because people may take them expecting they are dealing with a serious problem."

Sir David steps down on December 31.