The Manchester Evening News reports that there is a measles outbreak in northeast Manchester and Oldham. Three children have been hospitalised so far.
Here's an example of bad science having consequences in the real world. Take-up of the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine fell in the 1990s, following research by Andrew Wakefield that suggested a connection between autism, bowel problems and the MMR vaccine. To say that this research has now been discredited is really an understatement. Not only was the research incompetent, but there is strong evidence that it was fraudulent too. All the authors of the article, apart from Wakefield and another who could not be contacted, retracted the interpretation that MMR was linked to autism and bowel problems. This piece of bad science has led, indirectly but inexorably, to three children in Manchester having to be hospitalised with measles (which is not a harmless childhood illness). That is why this stuff matters.
There is no evidence that the MMR vaccine causes autism. If you don't get your child vaccinated, not only are you putting them at risk, you're putting other children at risk. MMR is safe: tell your friends.