What do you think of Australia's vaccine policy?

[rampy]

I'm born and bred Aussie. We live in WA and kids here can't go to kindy or school
without having been vaccinated. I have a couple of British friends who were so offended that they needed to vaccinate their kids they home schooled because 'well we'll just go back to the uk' but they've stayed and now need to get their kids vaccinated because they have no friends their own age and can't go to school without vaccines.

You can't apply for child related benefits if your kid isn't vaccinated either here.

Having seen NZ have just declared a whooping cough epidemic Id say I agree with WA stance I'm honest!

I have the sense to realize that scientists and research are smarter than me

So I make sure we're vaccinated

If you come here and want the benefits you have to agree to all the conditions. It’s not rocket science. Would you feel the same if these people were coming from an Asian country without the same vaccination rates as Western countries, and the kids were exposed to diseases like TB or Diptheria? (These are starting to trickle out into the Aussie community too, btw). I get so annoyed with anti-vax whiners when so many people would be grateful for the privilege.

I just hope there aren’t kids at risk who are impacted by this policy. I think for one, the school system is valuable for detecting vulnerable children. Stopping payment of child benefits only means that child is worse off. I don’t think there would be many families who felt strongly about the vaccines or were fearful and changed their mind for money or schooling. I think people of that ilk would just drift deeper into poverty & vulnerability.

No you don’t.

There are generally exemptions within religious/ethical frameworks if it’s about the preservation of human life. People practicing Judaism are obligated to guard their health, that includes vaccinations. Islam values both preventing harm and serving public interest. Most vegans/vegetarians will take medications that have animal ingredients if there is no other option (myself included), even PETA encourages vaccinations.

I think it's great to encourage important vaccinations, but it's generally not a good idea to require them.

There has been a fair bit of work that's been done looking into how we get people to take vaccinations when they are skeptical for some reason.

One of the take-aways is - don't force them to do it, it makes the problem worse.

Sadly, the medical community has lost trust to a really significant degree. And it's pretty much totally their own fault. If they want to be able to convince people who are skeptical about treatments to trust their expertise they need to work hard to regain that trust. Which does NOT mean telling people they are stupid, just for the record.

But the authorities mandated all kinds of weird crazy stuff with no scientific basis during covid - why would you leave it up to them?

There are many kids in Canada in school with no, or partial, vaccinations.

So everyone else children get the vaccines so yours are safe?

I think it's fine for uneducated parents to not have their children vaccinated. In Darwinian terms, it means some of the kids will die before they go on to breed future generations of ignorance.

What isn't fine is for uneducated parents' unvaccinated children to mingle with children too young to be vaccinated or children/people who can't be vaccinated due to a medical condition, thus putting these people at risk.

You say 'the medical community has lost trust' etc. and 'they need to work hard to regain that trust'. This is sheer bollocks. The science of vaccination is very well established and proven. For example, smallpox no longer exists.

What has happened is that science has been undermined by snake oil merchants selling their wares to a gullible public who believe in 'fake news'.

I wish everywhere had that policy too.

So, the rule makers are so concerned with children's health that they remove food money from family finances if parents don't comply.

I am not a fan of that sort of state coercion even though I am not an antivaxxer.

I also don't like calling all of those who don't vaccinate morons as some have legitimate issues with various vaccines, as previous posters have demonstrated. That in itself is moronic from the other side. The way some people talk as if children become infected with a disease the moment the vaccine against it is refused is quite deranged. There's ill informed ignorant shit said on both sides of the vaccine debate.

What extra things are they putting in them?

That's ridiculous.

Surely no religion would prefer the followers to risk their kids getting seriously ill over a small bit of gelatine.
Any religion unable to make an exception should be illegal.

Edit to add that vegan parents risking their child's health by refusing the vaccination are incredibly selfish.

She would get an exemption because hers is clearly a genuine medical case for one.

Trust doesn't work like that. Loss of trust in any authority calls into question everything that they say.

There have been so many medical and scientific scandals in recent years, and the medical and scientific community have been really compromised.

If people are worried about vaccinations, some group that is also implicated in other medical scandals is hardly going to be in a good place to convince them they should do what they are told.

That is a lie, nobody ever verified my kids' vaccination status in Canada.
The only thing was during covid where unvaccinated (against covid) teenagers weren't allowed to do extracurricular activities. It was all abolished.

It depends on the state. WA's policy is quite clearly "do not enrol" without an exemption.

I vaccinate my child

But that policy is completely fucked yo

No you don’t.

Presumably because your kids didn’t have any sort of severe reaction to any, otherwise you’d probably be against mandatory vaccination.

You are wishing death on children? Wow.

QLD is the same. I support the policy. I was horrified, during a whopping cough epidemic, to find my SIL was anti vax & let her young unvaxxed DC be all over my newborn without telling me. I assumed my DB would vax his DC. You never know who isn't vaxxed.

SIL quickly had her DC vaxxed a couple of years later to get them into their private school of choice, which had a vax policy for enrolments. I won't comment on how ragey that made me!!

Each state has it's own health department and health (see also education, policing) is the responsibility of the states. That's because the country is a federation of states. So it's not a blanket across-Australia policy. (That's why the federal government trying to mandate country-wide Covid health policy was so difficult.)

So it's not a requirement to be enroled in childcare or education in all parts of Australia, but it is in WA. NSW asks for vaccination records, but does not require children to be up to date, hence the unvaccinated clusters in schools around Byron/NSW North Coast.