EDITORIAL: Don’t like needles? Try getting polio

IT IS a shame the government had to go so far as to create a No Jab-No Play policy in order to get parents to immunise their kids.

Needle and syringe held by gloved at Nambour General Hospital. Photo: Iain Curry / Sunshine Coast Daily. Picture: Iain Curry

IT IS a shame the government had to go so far as to create a No Jab-No Play policy in order to get parents to immunise their kids.

But I have to say I think it is the right thing to do.

According to the stats, a shade less than 10% of parents will disagree with me on this one.

It is unfortunate, but this is a topic where you have to call a spade a spade.

Polio is just one of several diseases they vaccinate newborns against these days.

Anyone who has been around long enough would be able to tell you what polio can do to a person's body.

Most people make a full recovery, but some have permanent deformities, and a few will die.

Now let's weigh that up against having a relatively painless jab from a needle.

We are extremely lucky to live in a place where you can take your kids to the doctor and have them immunised against several potentially deadly diseases free of charge.

People in less privileged countries might look at us in awe.

Yet some still insist that immunisation is some kind of attack on their rights, or that they have some kind of God-given immunity to the diseases of the common man.

Some are just too lazy to take their children to the doctor.

If their decisions didn't have the potential to affect the general population, it wouldn't be such an issue.

Andrew Korner, deputy editor, Queensland Times