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!

Fantastic policy, however I think many parents will still put their children at risk because of their own aversion to vaccines. Too many people believe the posts going round social media about things being added to vaccines/they're being used to control us/they cause insert condition here, more needs to be done to tackle the anti-vax way of thinking and the misinformation that is eagerly lapped up by that community.

Excellent idea, allowing for valid medical exemptions. Should do the same here.

I live in Germany and you have to have the MMR for school/nursery and home ed is illegal.

I disagree in principle with the idea of forced vaccination but in practice I would get my kids vaccinated anyway so I just show the required documents and get on with life. Medical exemptions are allowed.

On balance I think it probably is a helpful policy since many people might not bother without this, and measles in particular requires such a high herd immunity rate.

I am very much pro vaccine but a policy like this doesn’t sit right with me. I don’t think it’s fair on the children of antivaxxers to also be denied an education.

pushing unvaccinated children out of state education means we may end up with pockets of like minded individuals feeding each others concerns about vaccinations and making the problem bigger. Since Covid a lot of anti vaxxers seem to also be conspiracy theorists and I’m not sure it’s wise forcing their children away from state education where they will experience many different views and hopefully learn some critical thinking skills.

Not true.

No, you don't, unfortunately there's no such rule or law

I approve of it too.

We're in a position in the UK now where the incredibly nasty diseases which are commonly vaccinated against have been basically removed, and the current generations don't have the memory or knowledge of them. Therefore it's easy to take the position that vaccines are bad as there's no perceived threat from not being vaccinated. I think people might think differently if polio reared its ugly head again.

I'm not anti vax but but I am anti coercion and it's terrifying how many people on this site are fine with it.

Why?

We lived in Australia when our dd was young so had all her vaccinations there, totally agree with with the system. Dd still managed to get mumps though, even though fully vaccinated, when she was a teenager, it completely floored her, she couldn't get out of bed for a week. I don't understand why someone would choose not to vaccinate against that.

I feel sorry for those children. I doubt the home education provided by people who don't believe in vaccination will be particularly competent.

Ridiculous. Why on Earth would vaccines be tested against placebo? Do you think immunity is psychosomatic?

Vaccines can't "stop" you getting sick and transmitting the disease to others. They reduce the chances of sickness and transmission, significantly in most cases. There is a mountain of evidence to show beyond any doubt that Covid vaccines did just that.

While hospitals worked non-stop, bodies piled up in a once-a-century global pandemic, doctors and nurses took enormous personal risk to work in overflowing ICUs, all you had to do was roll up your sleeve and get a vaccine. You don't even have the bare minimum scientific knowledge and self-awareness to appreciate that.

Just stop. You don't have the level of education in this subject required to judge the effectiveness of vaccines. Googling on your phone doesn't make you an epidemiologist. Leave that to those who have the relevant diplomas and experience in this field.

Sadly, there is lots of money in misinformation, and lots of people are gullible. Look at what just happened in the States. Look at vaccine rates here.

This.

How interesting I don’t remember doing this. And our school knew that we moved to UK way after DD was born. She was vaccinated of course but don’t remember putting it in any school forms.
Maybe it’s different rules if it’s independent school especially boarding.

This is also the case in France. You can't enroll your child in nursery or elementary school without a copy of their up to date vaccines for most childhood diseases.

It's a great system. Every child has a pediatrician from birth who him with regular appointments, does his vaccines on schedule, and treats their illnesses/infections.

This is not considered a personal freedom issue, even within the Anglophone community here. I know of only 1 family homeschooling their child and he is as vaccinated as everyone else. Parents took him out of school for completely unrelated reasons.

Ridiculous. Why on Earth would vaccines be tested against placebo? Do you think immunity is psychosomatic?

What do you mean? Covid vaccines were tested against a placebo. If you signed up to be part of the testing, you either got the actual vaccine, or a placebo. If you got the placebo, they gave you the actual vaccine after the study.

I agree.

Being ancient, I knew of children who had been left permanently disabled by polio, it was an awful illness and now virtually eradicated. Hopefully, it will soon go the way of smallpox. I also knew children who had disabilities because their mothers had contracted rubella during pregnancy.

I think a lot of people have little idea of how dangerous some of these illnesses can be. A friend of my mother's lost a child to measles and I was so ill I was nearly hospitalised when I had it at the age of 2. My brother was very ill with mumps as a toddler, so much so that the GP came and visited daily, twice a day when he was at his worst, in case he needed to be admitted to hospital.

I can't understand why anyone wouldn't want to protect their children, and others, from life threatening and potentially life-changing illnesses.

You can attend school in Victoria (in Oz), but not daycare/ kindergarten.

There is a small penalty applied to the child benefit payable if your child is unvaccinated, but it is still available.

The dependent child rebate is not available at tax time for unvaccinated children (I think it's worth around $700).

After the Covid nonsense this state experienced, I have had enough of public health authoritarianism. State mandated medical treatment is a hard no from me. Clearly, many others disagree.

Idiotic. Any parent that puts their desire for a vegetarian diet over their child's health doesn't deserve to be one.

And btw, religious exemptions work the other way around. It's acceptable to break rules for both Jews and Muslims on things like consuming pig for a far greater good. Even orthodox can use vaccines.

I’m British and I think the policy is reasonable. I did run into an issue when I lived in Canada with my eldest child as there was a vaccine that was routine there( that has since been added to UK schedule) but he hadn’t had. He was outside of the age range to be given it so couldn’t have it over there.

Also when I was in Australia they were a bit sniffy when he caught chicken pox as to why unvaccinated. I think possibly countries could have an international standard of vaccines or something. I dare say I could have him privately vaccinated but it wasn’t really so much if a thing back then.

"I think you can be respectful to people and their concerns while still insisting that particular vaccines happen for particular purposes. I'd never call someone a nutter. The problem is when you have people moving in discursive spheres that effectively close them off to others' respectful engagement with them."

I very much disagree. I don't see how you can be respectful of people's concerns regarding vaccinations whilst insisting they have them. That's completely trampling their concerns. Nothing respectful about that at all.

This is my experience as a school vaccinator. What usually happens (every day, when we do flu vaccines in a high school) is…. First few Muslim/jewish kids have live flu vaccines (nasal)….
…..by break/lunch word has got ‘round & we then start to get kids saying ‘miss I'm Muslim I’m not having that vaccine it’s got gelatine in it Miss.’ so we show them the email their parents filled out. They still refuse. So we ring their parents who explain to them that healthcare comes before everything. Usually the child agrees. Occasionally they still refuse and we offer the injection or offer their parent to come to the school to speak with them.

We give every opportunity for the vaccines, but the myth that some people ‘cannot’ have a vaccine due to religious reasons or because they are vegan/veggie is simply that. A myth. It is a choice they make.

Fab policy

I wouldn't be happy with this policy at all, but luckily we still have informed choice here.

My family is vaccinated against the main preventable diseases, but I wouldn't allow any of them to have the covid, chicken pox or HPV vaccine for example.