Drop in Qld vaccination rates a casualty of Covid

The chaotic years of Covid are receding rapidly, but the latest legacy is the rise of ‘vaccine fatigue’ and it’s putting our children at risk, writes the Editor.

Those chaotic years of Covid are receding rapidly yet the lingering legacy of the 21st Century’s first plague is deeply unsettling.

It is not simply the loss of life which, according to the World Health Organisation, has already reached beyond seven million and no doubt continues to rise.

Nor is it limited to the dramatic blow to national economies across the globe or the disruption to schooling which will have lifelong impacts on a generation of children.

The latest lingering legacy is the rise of “vaccine fatigue’’ which seems to have become more entrenched than mere “vaccine hesitancy’’.

Queensland’s Chief health Officer John Gerrard says finding the correct approach to handling pandemics (which he is sure will occur again in the years ahead) is the “$64,000 question” for public health figures globally.

Dr Gerrard, appointed CHO on December 13, 2021 – the same day Queensland’s borders were re-opened to fully vaccinated travellers from interstate hotspots – openly acknowledged public health officials did not make all the right calls during the pandemic.

In the refreshingly frank interview, Dr Gerrard says the messaging was probably wrong, and future strategies will shift from the “mandate’’ approach to simply providing as much information about the problem to the public as possible rather than trying to persuade them to follow direction.

In other words, forcing people to get vaccinated by imposing harsh restrictions that affect their lives and livelihoods is not the way to go.

Covid created global chaos, and some of its impacts are lingering.

Amid the mistakes made by public officials during the crisis, the resultant loss of confidence by some members of the public in vaccines is the most worrying.

From the 18th Century when English physician Edward Jenner created the smallpox vaccine to when 20th Century American virologist Jonas Salk gave the world the first effective vaccine against polio, the value of vaccines has been established beyond any shadow of doubt.

Yet the reluctance to vaccinate is becoming a critical issue in this state which could witness a return of deadly diseases like polio, tetanus and whooping cough if vaccination rates in children continue to plummet.

The Gold Coast Hinterland and areas of the Sunshine Coast are hitting around 80 per cent vax rates for polio in a country which maintains an aspirational target of 95 per cent of children to be fully vaccinated.

DTP immunisation which covers diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (whooping cough) is equally low in these areas hitting close to 80 per cent.

Infectious disease expert Professor Nigel McMillan from Griffith University says that if vaccination rates continue to fall, the door will open for a return of diseases which have been largely conquered for decades.

The Covid years, unquestionably, raised legitimate questions about the authority of global medical authorities who made public pronouncements which, while almost certainly in good faith, were, with the benefit of hindsight, not always based on “the science’’.

But centuries of evidence cannot be sidelined in this matter.

One major study published in The Lancet, a medical journal with a history going back to 1823, found global immunisation efforts have saved an estimated 154 million lives – the equivalent of six lives for every minute of every year for the past 50 years.

Vaccines have served humanity well. We would be foolish in the extreme to turn our back on them.

Originally published as Drop in Qld vaccination rates a casualty of Covid