A mother whose child died aged six from a brain inflammation caused by measles hopes sharing her story will encourage parents to “vaccinate more”.
It comes as the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) warned of measles outbreaks in parts of London.
Gemma Larkman-Jones wants more parents to consider having their children vaccinated sooner.
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Prof Dame Jenny Harries, UKHSA chief executive, warned that measles is spreading among unvaccinated communities, and added that a “national call to action” is needed across the country.
Vaccination rates across the UK have been dropping, but there are particular concerns in parts of the capital as well as in some areas of the West Midlands.
The irony is that America isn’t even in the top 3 most litigious countries. That stereotype was a myth that was spread by McDonalds, in the wake of the (now infamous) hot coffee lawsuit.
Basically, a woman was horribly burned by coffee that was way too hot (the coffee was hot enough to melt her labia and fuse it to her thigh) and only wanted McD to pay for her medical bills. It was something like $20k total, once all the skin grafts, reconstructive surgery, rehab, etc was accounted for. McD told her to pound sand. So she sued for the medical bills, because her insurance company required it as a condition of her coverage. Basically, her health insurance didn’t want to pay for it, so they said they’d only cover things after she lost a lawsuit.
In the lawsuit, it was discovered that she wasn’t even the first person to have been injured; McD had been warned numerous times that their coffee was being served too hot (it was near boiling) and that it had horribly injured several people prior to this. But they kept the coffee hot to discourage free refills; People had to wait for their coffee to cool before they drank it, and all that waiting meant fewer refills. So McD repeatedly refused to lower the serving temp of their coffee, because they didn’t want to potentially give people an extra refill.
In the lawsuit, the jury was so horrified that they awarded the woman the large judgement. Again, she was only suing for the medical bills, but they awarded her millions instead, to send a lesson to McD and hopefully get them to reduce the temp of their coffee.
Instead, McD hired an advertising company to run an astroturfing campaign against the woman. They spread the myth that she was a money hungry vulture looking for an easy payday. They dragged her through the mud, and she ended up having a mental breakdown from all of the constant harassment. Simultaneously, they spread the stereotype that Americans are all super litigious and will sue at the smallest inconvenience. Again, to discourage future lawsuits by making people think their (completely legitimate) claims were frivolous.
It’s widely considered to be one of the most successful astroturfing campaigns in history, and comments like yours are proof of that. The stereotype still exists to this day, all because McDonalds didn’t want to give free refills.
It’s still in the top 5 though. And that’s per capita. If you look at the total number of frivolous lawsuits, America number one again, and it’s not even close
Germany and Austria are only in the top 5 because a) the sheer number of laws they have, and b) the fact it that legal action is covered by obligatory insurance
We all remember the McDonald’s case, that has nothing to do with it