Anti-vaccination movement: Queensland parents lead nation in conscientious objection

QUEENSLAND parents are leading the nation in “conscientious objection” to vaccination. Where do you stand?

QUEENSLAND parents are leading the nation in refusing to vaccinate their children, with more than 4000 parents raising ethical objections to immunisation in new data released today.

About 75,000 Australian children are not fully immunised, with about 15,000 of these due to their parents raising a “conscientious objection” to immunisation.

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National data to be released today by the National Health Performance Authority shows more than 4100 Queensland parents declared themselves objectors in 2012-13.

Of the top five areas for conscientious objections, four were found to be in Queensland: greater metro south, metro north, the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast.

AMA Queensland Council of General Practice chairman Dr Richard Kidd said there was evidence the risks of immunisation were much less than those of disease.

“Some of these diseases can be quite nasty, deadly diseases, and because we’ve been doing such a good job of it, there are a generation of young parents who don’t appreciate how bad the diseases are,’’ he said.

To be exempt from vaccination, parents need to sign a form saying they have personal, philosophical, religious or medical beliefs that vaccination should not take place.

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Parent group The Parenthood recently started a campaign to boost childhood immunisation in response to concerns about parents exempting themselves.

“We want to see a rise in childhood immunisation rates nationally, but particularly in Queensland, where there is an epidemic, and we have unfortunately got groups peddling mistruths,’’ the group’s executive director Fiona Sugden said.

Mother Emma Hogan, 31, said the decision to vaccinate daughter Ava, 23 months, was a simple one.

“I think it is part of my responsibility as a parent to give her the best opportunity to have a safe and healthy life,’’ she said.

Australian Vaccination Skeptics Network spokeswoman Meryl Dorey said parents had valid scientific concerns that needed to be listened to.

“There seems to be an awful lot of fearmongering when it comes to these statistics and possibly a push to take away a person’s right to make these decisions,’’ she said.

National data showed the number of children not fully immunised dropped from 76,769 in 2011-12 to 75,002 in 2012-13.