Anti-vaxxer sentiment among early childhood educators amid push for mandatory flu jabs
Vaccination advocates say research shows vaccination uptake in early childhood education centre staff is low and needs urgent government intervention.
Early Education
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Exclusive: Anti-vaxxers are infiltrating the ranks of early childcare workers who are angry at a renewed push to have them receive mandatory flu shots.
Early childhood advocate and consultant Lisa Bryant said she received backlash after coming out supporting the call for ‘no jab, no pay’ and vaccination advocates say research shows vaccination uptake in early childhood education centre staff is low and needs urgent government intervention.
Federal and state governments strongly recommend vaccinations for childcare educators but there is no formal mechanism for Governments to monitor or ensure the recommendation is adhered to, like there is in most healthcare settings.
The push to make childcare workers have mandatory vaccinations – as children in childcare are required to have – followed the federal government’s recent move to make flu vaccinations mandatory for aged care workers and came after the AHPPC recently amended advice to recommend workers and parents receive the flu shot before entering a childcare centre.
Ms Bryant said the amended recommendation sparked uproar in the sector, with many educators already frustrated by the current childcare crisis.
“I was horrified to discover that there was a bit of a backlash about that. I started to become aware that in some of the groups the backlash was coming from Americans and Canadians and also a lot of objections from Australian educators.
“I posted in some of the childhood social media groups and asked if people could please be pro-vax when they see these things – and I was attacked in a way that I have never been attacked in the sector before.
“It is so unbelievable to me that educators and teachers who spend their entire working lives protecting children would not take this step to protect children … I can’t believe they would have gone for years without doing it, but especially now.”
News Corp Australia has sighted a number of objections by early childhood educators in public social media groups, including from workers who say they have been in the sector for many years and have never had an influenza jab.
Following the AHPPC recommendation, large childcare chain Goodstart who have 18,000 childcare workers across the country, became the first to make flu vaccinations mandatory but the movement also triggered uproar in parts of the sector, as the anti-vaxxers join forces with COVID conspiracy theorists.
A co-ordinated protest against vaccinations was last Saturday planned for sites across the country with the flyer advertising ‘millions march against mandatory vaccinations.” Mothers came, with their children perched on shoulders, carrying signs declaring “My health is Mama’s Choice”.
University of Sydney’s Professor Julie Leask who is also a member of the Collaboration on Social Science in Immunisation (COSSI) said the anti-vaccination movement is “very, very globalised now” and moves to make vaccination mandatory could cause long term damage. But she said there should absolutely be more done to increase vaccination rates among childcare educators – including making it mandatory for services to sight vaccination certificates.
“There are a few people noticing that there seems to be the anti-vaccination activists, who are small and vocal, are joining forces with the anti-COVID conspiracy theory crowd. So we have a slightly volatile environment right now.”
Professor Leask said mandatory vaccinations would help bring up immunisation rates in childcare workers but it would also give more ammunition to anti-vaxxers.
“In the current environment it could escalate that reaction against vaccination that we are seeing with COVID-19.
“You could go down the mandatory vaccination route for child care workers and what risks that brings is that while it might also help to rise immunisation rates in child care workers for what mandatory vaccination would likely do in the current environment is escalate reaction against vaccination that we’re seeing with COVID-19. “
Professor Leask said there was a lack of oversight in terms of whether workers have been vaccinated and that childcare centres themselves needed a policy they were accountable to.
“The second thing is to get centres to regularly check with staff their immunisation status, there is a vaccination register for adults. But that in itself is not quite enough, you also need to make sure that vaccines are free for those individuals and private providers.”
New research shows the state and governments’ “strong recommendation” that childcare workers are fully vaccinated is not enough with outdated ideas and attitudes rife in the industry.
The study looked at the uptake of vaccination in Australian early childhood education staff and found sixty per cent were aware of the recommendations but while 86 per cent participants acknowledged they could spread diseases if unvaccinated, 30 per cent could not recall receiving a diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis in the last 10 years.
The study’s lead author Holly Seale, from School of Public Health and Community Medicine, UNSW, said the study also found private centres were less likely to provide free or onsite vaccination compared to other categories of centres. Less than half reported receiving any encouragement to get the influenza vaccine and only 33 per cent reported that their centre provides onsite influenza vaccination.
She told News Corp Australia that education and intervention was urgently needed – particularly to lay the groundwork for when a COVID-19 vaccination became available.
“These workers play a pivotal role in supporting larger workforce capacity and it vital they are able to function and function safely.
“We need better ways of engaging with this workforce so that if a COVID vaccine becomes available we already have the processes in place.”
Goodstart’s National Safe Work and Wellbeing Manager Kylie Warren-Wright said flu vaccination were now mandatory following the federal government decision to recommend workers be vaccinated.
“We consider vaccination one the most effective ways to reduce the risk of spread and infection of vaccine-preventable diseases. We have provided exemptions for those employees who are unable to be vaccinated due to medical conditions,” she said.
“Our flu vaccination program is free for all of our employees. We encourage all early learning providers to be part of this very important community health campaign.”