SIR - We have in the UK a crisis developing in the uptake of vaccination within certain age/ethnic groups.This is probably due to dubious misconceived information freely circulated on social media sites.

Perhaps this results in a rather selfish attitude by individuals to feel they have a right to refuse vaccinations and at the same time mix with the general population putting themselves and the public at risk. Even those who are fully vaccinated are not always observing Government advice as to wearing masks in crowded areas.

In my early years (I am 76) we still had contagious wards in hospitals full of patients with polio, measles, chicken pox, mumps, meningitis, bacterial resistant pneumonia, etc. Tuberculosis sanatoria were filled with sick and dying patients. Leper colonies existed.

Fortunately, because of the development of vaccines and antibiotics, smallpox was wiped from the Earth and diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus, polio, leprosy and many other contagious diseases have been essentially eliminated.

In those days, we had parents and other citizens who recognized their duty to obtain these preventive medications for themselves and their children. Let us hope that reason prevails today, and we don't fall for ridiculous suggestions by those who claim a right to choose.

David Algar,Mawcroft Close, Nether Yeadon