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!

Just an inevitable consequence of failing to vaccinate against deadly viruses, and entirely the decision of anti-vax parents.

I’m not uneducated. In fact I work in a research department and followed a masters in policy evaluation. One of my children was fairy badly affected by her pre school booster. The other is unvaccinated. You call me uneducated and wish death on my younger child?

There is usually a reason why people are antivax, and it’s usually after seeing a loved one suffer a severe reaction.
Lucky you to not have experienced this and sit on your high horse and judge others who have suffered it, and wish death on their children.
Unvaccinated kids aren’t dripping in disease.

Great policy

If smallpox were still in circulation, would you refuse to have your children vaccinated against it?

@CharlieMagenta https://wellcomecollection.org/stories/outsiders-the-child

In fact my uncle had such a severe reaction to the smallpox vaccine that his siblings were not allowed to be given it. It’s one of the most deadly vaccines in history. Look it up.

So deadly that it eradicated the disease in 1980.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1069029/

NB the section on adverse events and transmission to contacts of vaccinated individuals.

I'm in W.A., not too far from a town with a large anti-vax community, Steiner school, they're not poor people, quite middle class, in fact.
A little boy has just recently been blinded in one eye by measles.
You'd think seeing that would make people relent, but they jut their chins out further, even more determined, as if they're taking on Mother Nature in the same way they've taken on the medical establishment, the government, Bill Gates.
Yes, the authoriries need to win trust, but I can't get into the minds' of people in these communities, so I don't know the way forward.

Educate yourself better. And maybe stop wishing death on children.

That's the thing. People lost the sight of how severe the actual illnesses are.

Majority of the antivaxers don't have experience with any severe reaction, they just don't understand the maths involved and see it as a chance to be contrary.

Actually, parents of children with really serious health conditions typically want vaccinations for them (when it is medically possible), because the risks when catching the illnesses are significantly higher for them. Mum of a girl with severe neurological diagnosis was practically celebrating every vaccine their doctor allowed.

You can sneer at us in the US for many things (and I agree about the terrible situation with guns and with politics) but America has strict vaccination requirements for schools, universities, and summer camps- the UK has none at all, so don't denigrate our vaccine rules!

In the US it is not easy to get a religious or medical exemption, and proofs of vaccination are necessary in many settings.

I’m in NSW and I think we are different in that unvaccinated kids ARE allowed in public schools but if there is an outbreak of the disease they are banned from school for x amount of time (depends on what the outbreak is). You can’t get government benefits for your kids though but that’s Federal so all States/Territories are the same on that.

As for people claiming others wish death on children - ffs, catch onto yourself.

No you do not.

You can sneer at us in the US for many things (and I agree about the terrible situation with guns and with politics) but America has strict vaccination requirements for schools, universities, and summer camps- the UK has none at all, so don't denigrate our vaccine rules!

Not for much longer when Trump gets back in the WH. He's putting an anti-vaxxer in charge of health.

How would you know they are allergic until they have the vaccine.

I had the flu vaccine and was wiped out for 6 weeks with full blown flu.

Dr wouldn’t believe me when I said vaccine gave me the flu

Had the vaccine again and same thing happened.

I have other issues with so many things but no one would give me an allergy test till I ended up in A&E
Turns out I am allergic to all vaccines as the thing that makes our body susceptible to the vaccine in order for it to produce antibodies goes haywire in my body and it makes it too susceptible
I was so ill after my first couple of vaccinations my mother never went again.

I was never vaccinated against anything else

That's not true for Jewish people.
Even the most ultra orthodox Jews will be vaccinated. It is a requirement in Judaism to protect your health. Normal kosher laws don't apply for medicines that are needed and certainly don't apply to a vaccine that is not ingested.

The Jewish people that I know who won't vaccinate do it for the same pseudoscientific reasons that other people won't vaccinate. In America they use the religious exemption just because they can buy not because our religion forbids it.

Im British but absolutely agree with the policy. People have a choice, it’s not mandatory. If you disagree, home school or move!

One in millions! So are you saying no one should be vaccinated because one person in millions may have a reaction?

According to the article you linked to, the fatality rate due to the smallpox vaccine was 1 in a million, equivalent to 0.0001%. The fatality rate of smallpox itself was 30%. But of course, you can make an educated guess as to which odds you'd prefer.

I attach a photo of a man who died of smallpox in 1896, in an epidemic in Gloucester. It was a very unpleasant disease.

Measles is still around. In 1941, 1,145 in people died of measles in the UK. In 2023, 3 people died (1 child, 2 adults). The difference in these stats over 80 years is due to vaccination.

If I wished for children to die, the first thing I'd recommend is to stop vaccinations.

I’m in NZ and this whooping cough epidemic is very worrying.
more worrying is the fact that these vaccinations are FREE, obviously parents/caregivers are not taking advantage of these important immunizations.
Here the - 1st dose is given at 6 wks, the 2nd at 3mths and 5 maths. Again at 4 yrs and a
booster at age 11 (school yr 7).

It’s so utterly maddening when this outbreak is so preventable.

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

It really isn’t food money. The maximum (depending on your income) is $220ish per fortnight which drops to about $190ish per fortnight if a child is unvaccinated.

That is called family tax benefit. It is just one of many benefits payments that might be available.

And childcare is not subsidised for unvaccinated children. That probably hits a lot harder than losing $30 per fortnight.

Rare in the modern western world to get a chance to find out what happens when vaccination stops. It'll be interesting. Also interesting to see how US citizens react to the consequences.

When that one in a million is your child, the odds don't really matter.

I've been in the hospital and told by a doctor that they don't understand why my child reacted the serious way they did, so just give the next one. I did not give the next one.