Childcare Payments and Benefits Cut to all Parents who Fail to Vaccinate Kids
MORE than 142,700 parents labeled as ‘irresponsible’ have been cut off from receiving childcare payments after failing to vaccinate their children. Hallelujah!
The federal government according to The Saturday Telegraph, have revealed the extraordinarily high number of Australian parents who have not ensured their children are fully immunised, exposing them to dangerous illnesses and infection.
Parents of 142,793 children under the age of five were cut off from receiving up to $15,000 in taxpayer-funded childcare payments following the ‘No jab, no play’ campaign. Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said he was “delighted” the government’s new policy had worked, with almost 200,000 more children receiving vaccinations for diseases like hepatitis, tetanus and whooping cough since the laws were introduced in January 2016.
“This data shows the policy is working and we encourage objecting parents to reconsider their position which is not supported by medical expertise,” he said.
“This policy is safeguarding the health standards of the general community and protecting our infants against hideous illnesses.”
Mr Hunt said parents had the right to be vaccine objectors but they would be cut off from the Child Care Benefit, the Child Care Rebate or the Family Tax Benefit Part A end-of-year supplement.
I am a mother of a child who contracted Meningococcal B Meningitis as an infant, 3 months old, when immunity is compromised and they are at their most fragile, before the availability of a vaccine that is still, horrifyingly, not on the national immunisation list but now can be purchased. I am a mother who watched their child hang and fight between life and death. I watched him become limp and lifeless, I watched as his veins collapsed and I watched as his little heart failed and crashed. I watched as he fought and, by a miracle, he won against a vaccine preventable disease. I am a mother and I am a champion for vaccinations. We are, of course, all entitled to, as a parent, make choices for our children’s health and wellbeing, but when you choose not to vaccinate your child you are taking away my choice to protect mine, you are not only putting your children at risk but because of it my child, my baby, he nearly died.
My son in hospital fighting a vaccine preventable disease
Vaccinations provide a natural defense against infection and disease by introducing small quantities of a disease safely so that the body can respond and build antibodies for that particular disease. If that individual comes into contact or encounters the disease again the bodies cellular memory kicks in to fight the disease quickly, effectively and reducing the severity often before symptoms even appear!
It is not just a matter of individual protection, if enough people are vaccinated it can stop a disease from spreading, protecting the population as a whole with whats known as herd immunity. It is thought 19/20 people must be vaccinated in order for the population to be immune.
The number of parents choosing not to vaccinate has doubled in the last ten years! That is staggering when you think of the implications on the wider community. In 1998 a now discredited study came out linking vaccinations to autism, these findings were found to be a complete fabrication but the impact on the now misinformed choices of some parents has been irrevocable. Health authorities say the actual risk in regard to immunisation is incredibly small about 3 in 10 thousand children will develop small and short lived side effect to the measles, mumps, rubella shot.
We are a society and we are a community, we are in this altogether. We have a right to chose but with those choices we carry responsibility not just for ourselves and for our family but for the society in which we live in. These actions make us accountable to be informed and not to make decisions based on scare tactics and fraud.
“No Jab, No Play” all the way!
