By Kelly Scott
‘Anti-vaxxers’ who feel they will be judged for their decision are keeping it a secret, putting others at greater risk, a new study suggests.
Edith Cowan University school of psychology and social science researchers said the study showed the health of pregnant women and newborns was at risk from parents who refused to be honest about their decision not to vaccinate their children.
Lead researcher Dr Bronwyn Harman told The Guardian it was important to understand the reasons parents were not vaccinating their children.
“It really does frighten me a lot if people coming into contact with those women and children aren’t disclosing their status out of fear of being perceived as bad parents,” she said.
Early results from the study indicate reasons included a mistaken belief a healthy diet alone could protect their children as well as herd immunity.
But mainly, feelings of manipulation by governments was driving under-vaccination, Dr Harman said.
“These parents believe they are being lied to and believe they have done enough of their own research to believe vaccinating is risky, even though much of their research comes from unreliable sources on the internet.”
Australian Childhood Immunisation Register data shows as at September 30 last year 93 per cent of children aged 12 to 15 months were fully immunised. For children aged two years to 27 months, the rate dropped to 90.4 per cent.
Top Comments
I think schools/ daycare should require vaccination certificates to prove all enrolled students have been fully vaccinated and if there is a medical issue why they couldn't be (chronic illness/ allergy etc) then a medical certificate explaining
I'm pretty sure they do......all the legal requirements (that I know of) are to provide a copy of the Immunisation form from Medicare!
Living in Byron Bay it's a minefeild up here. I feel sick about how many children our 18 month old daughter comes into contact with everyday who aren't immunized. I read recently our immunization rate is comparable to Southern Sudan. Many of our friends kids aren't immunized and with baby number 2 on the way I worry about this almost daily. These friends of ours actually believe they and their kids are safe with their organic diets and green smoothies. It frustrates me to no end. We are on the flip side of this argument where we feel like we need to keep it quiet that we did vaccinate our daughter. It's a conversation where these people believe we have been brainwashed by pharmaceutical companies and will fight to the death about it. We just don't go there. I know you could say - time to get some new friends, but spend time here and realize how difficult it is to find friends with vaccinated kids. Almost enough to make us want to move to another area.
You can get the whooping cough vaccine in your third trimester which will protect your baby from whooping cough until they are old enough to be vaccinated. It's provided for free by the government