That " Vaccination " Issue !

The New South Wales parliament has finally lost patience with the anti-vaccination brigade and their shenanigans to have children avoid that life preserving jab.  No matter that the entire health industry supports vaccination as the only way to eliminate a range of childhood diseases a few objectors gain media coverage with their nonsense that vaccinations cause autism.

For what is termed " herd protection " we need to achieve a ninety-five percent immunization  rate and that has required a law change.   The NSW parliament has passed a bill to amend the Public Health act.  From January of next year children that are not fully immunized  will no longer be able to be enrolled or to attend child care facilities.

This legislation closes the one loophole that very articulate non-vaxers have used to sway a proportion of the public to refuse the vaccination needle.   Until now the state has recognised a claim that parents who have a " conscientious objection " to vaccination as a valid reason for refusing to have their children vaccinated.   That will no longer apply.

The act has been strengthened to catch child care centres which ignore the rules and accept unvaccinated kids and parents who either forge or falsify documentation to try and get around the rules.  That will become an offence under the amended law and carry fines of up to $ 5,500.

This law change became necessary because of the unrelenting activities of a few zealots running anti vaccination campaigns on public media.  They manage to sway public opinion by what seems to be a compelling medical argument.  This is usually composed of matter that has long been proved wrong by science but repeated claims can throw a doubt in the minds of some parents and cause them to hesitate.  As a result, vaccination levels have hovered about the eighty percent level, allowing diseases such as whooping cough and meningococcal to gain a hold.

The people at the forefront of this anti vaccination movement are usually without any medical qualifications, but there are a few deluded medically qualified doctors who have been induced to give their support.  Obviously, they would be listened to by parents and that is a very dangerous reason why vaccination levels have slipped below that ninety-five percent mark.

It seems that the Australian Health Practitioners Registration Agency has now began to call such doctors to appear before one of its panels to be questioned.   That could lead to the matter of ethics becoming a registration issue.  It seems that child vaccination is fast becoming a critical issue that needs to be universally in place if we are to escape the return of childhood diseases that were a scourge of past centuries.

For the dedicated few who still believe the anti-vaxers - the only remaining option seems to be home schooling !