David Penberthy: Rising number of anti-vaxxers is a danger to all children

HERE’S something to ponder next time you’re making the school lunches. If you stick a nut bar in your kid’s lunch box you risk inviting the wrath of the school system for jeopardising the lives of the hyper-allergic.

Here’s something to ponder next time you’re making the school lunches. If you stick a nut bar in your kid’s lunch box you risk inviting the wrath of the school system for jeopardising the lives of the hyper-allergic.

Yet if you thumb your nose at the vast sea of indisputable scientific evidence by lodging a conscientious objection against immunisation, exposing your children and others to mumps, measles, whooping cough, diphtheria, any number of life-threatening nasties, they can still happily take their place at school alongside the rest of the class.

The rise and rise of conscientious objection to immunisation proves one sad fact about life in the 21st century: the internet has made people stupid.

I can think of no other correlation to explain the continuing rise in the number of anti-vaxxers out there. Back in 1999 there was more reason to be iffy about vaccinations than there is now. The hotly-contested argument back then was whether vaccinations were linked to autism, off the back of an article published in The Lancet the year before.

In the 16 years since, repeated independent studies have found that there is absolutely no link whatsoever, and that the original research had been manipulated by its discredited author, and was fully retracted by The Lancet.

In 2015, there are no credible scientific voices arguing that the microscopically tiny risk from vaccines outweighs the health benefits of being vaccinated. Not one.

What there are, though, are any number of credible-sounding websites promising “the truth” about vaccinations or, at best, elevating the tosh arguments against them to level-pegging with the credible, tested arguments in their favour, leaving the confused parent to be the judge.

Aside from the convincing-sounding websites there are many which are so hysterically conspiratorial as to be funny, such as one out of North Carolina called vaccinetruth.org, which features an image of children being chased by giant syringes under the caption “PHARMAGEDDON”, and also offers handy links to a YouTube video depicting the use of vaccinations in science fiction films.

The thing about the internet is that it takes about half an hour for someone with no medical qualifications to create a website pretending they’re medically qualified and cobbling together any number of fatuous titbits to scare the bejesus out of fretful parents.

The best advice would be to ignore absolutely anything which is not published by an official national vaccination website, by a mainstream university or a government health department, although the very word “government” would no doubt set off alarm bells among the more bonkers anti-vaxxers who think the whole thing is a sinister government plot.

So where are we now as a result of all this online rubbish?

■ In 1999, there were 4271 objectors in Australia, or 0.23 per cent of the population

■ In 2003, 13,790 objectors, or 0.77 per cent of the population

■ In 2006, 18,889 or 1.03 per cent

■ In 2009, 25,706 or 1.3 per cent

■ In 2012, 32,410 or 1.49 per cent

■ In 2013, 36,320 or 1.64 per cent.

These are the official figures from the Commonwealth Health Department. Since 1999, there has not been a single year when either the rate of objection or its percentage of the population has gone down.

On these projections, 2 per cent of the nation’s children – one in every 50 – will be listed with an objection to immunisation by 2020. Up and up it will go. Pretty reasonable odds that your kid will be sitting next to one or two of them during their seven years in primary school.

The best recent example of the numbers game the anti-vaxxers are playing was in Disneyland, where 52 people contracted measles last month – six of them people who had been vaccinated.

There is a good explanation of the science behind it by Katie M. Palmer on the wired.com website, explaining how when the immunisation rate dips below 95 per cent, the so-called “herd” immunity, which keeps us all safe, dips, too.

And that’s the reason measles is on the up in the US, with 635 residents infected last year – more than the past four years combined.

The same thing is happening in Australia, with the national notifiable diseases surveillance system revealing a resurgence of measles, mumps and rubella in 2013. The NNDSS found half the cases of measles were in people who were not vaccinated, and 35 per cent had unknown vaccination status.

Some states have introduced “no jab, no play” policies, whereby parents who refuse to immunise their children must provide their childcare centre with Commonwealth forms completed by a GP noting their objection. The decision to allow the child entry is then made by the centre.

It sounds heavy-handed, and it is. But it’s the fault of these silly parents that their kids are put in that position. And it only applies in childcare, not at schools, with some health experts arguing there should even be separate schools for these kids. Harsh, but again, who is putting them and other children at risk?

Meanwhile, watch out for those muesli bars which might contain nuts or traces of nuts. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not disputing the veracity of anaphylactic shock. I have seen a mate’s daughter have a frightening reaction merely to being touched after he had eaten a cashew and had oil on his hand.

I only make the comparison to point out the weird inconsistency, where the real nuts can get away with endangering their children, and everyone else’s, because they think they know more than every credible scientist.