Doctors will be given incentive payments so that parents stick to their children’s vaccination schedule, and the one religious exemption to vaccinations will end, as part of a push by the federal government to boost the immunisation rate.
Social services minister Scott Morrison on Sunday announced that the only religious group currently able to claim religious exemptions for vaccinations, Christian Scientists, will no longer be able to do so.
Morrison said the exemption, in place since 1998, “is no longer current or necessary and will therefore be removed”.
“Having resolved this outstanding matter, the government will not be receiving nor authorising any further vaccination exemption applications from religious organisations,” he said.
Families will still be able to claim exemptions to vaccinations on medical grounds. “This will remain the sole ground for exemption under the Coalition government,” Morrison said.
I think this is a stellar idea, and America needs to follow suit.
To my mind there should never be any objection based on faith to practices that positively impact the well being of the community as a whole, or the individual personally.
This also goes for the Jehovah Witnesses refusal of blood transfusions, choosing faith healing over scientific medicine, and buying truckloads of weapons and ammunition in deference to that religious text known as the 2nd Amendment.
Facts should dictate our choices in all things, not superstition or fear of angering somebody's god.
This is good. If people want to live in a society, they have to abiding the rules that society had to keep itself safe.
ReplyDeleteIt's staggering how much leeway and how many special rights the religious have in America, not to mention how eagerly politicians pander to them, and yet they still howl about persecution and victimization. I can't imagine the courts ever overruling religious exemptions for something as cut and dry as public health-- at least no time soon.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I expect the exact opposite to occur in the U.S., thanks to the religious bigots on the Supreme Court which seems determined to allow religious belief systems to trump secular laws.
ReplyDeleteGood for Australia!
ReplyDeleteBeaglemom
Vaccination don't cause autism? Yah and smoking doesn't cause cancer either.
ReplyDeleteNo one should ever be forced to put something into their body that they don't want in their body. No matter that you think it may be good for you or anyone else. When the government has that much power we are all doomed.
Stupid woman, the government is not forcibly vaccinating anyone. They're simply withdrawing the benefits of government, such as kindergarten and school.
DeleteAnd if vaccination "caused" autism, we'd ALL fucking have it.
What 3:18 said, without the "stupid woman" part. Where is the data and proof that Autism is caused by Vaccinations? I thought it was "God's will" according to most religions.
Delete
DeleteAs far as autism, the only child I have personally known with autism had no vaccinations.
But please, I will be waiting for the link you can provide to scientific data about vaccines ad autism.
Anon 2:46--- When your beliefs (yes, not accepted science, but personal beliefs) are endangering my own child's health and life, as well as the health and life of other children in the community---
DeleteOF COURSE I have the right to object to your own stupidity and selfishness, and to do all I can to make sure my own government does not fall prey to them.
And as 3:18 said---if vaccines caused autism, almost every single one of the boomers, Gen X, and Gen Y would have it.
I can understand allowing the blood transfusion objection to stand since it affects only the person refusing it. Of course, refusing it for a child is another matter, since that child has no say in the situation.
ReplyDeleteHowever, refusal to get vaccinated against highly communicable diseases affects other people around you, and can kill people with whom you have brief and accidental contact, particularly people who, for reasons of age or medical condition, cannot get vaccinated.
If you insist on maintaining that right, society should have the right to limit your contact with the general public in situations that facilitate the spread of disease, like schools.
Thank goodness for intelligence!
ReplyDeleteGood is all I can say. BTW I have traveled to Africa, the Middle East, and Haiti. There are few people in the world that have had more vaccines than I have.
ReplyDeleteYeah and they banned guns after a massacre also, too.
ReplyDeleteStooopid aussies.
NOT!
There was a survey in yesterday's UK Observer on a whole range of topics but most interesting was the finding that 21% of British folk consider themselves atheist and 17% agnostic; most relevant to your posting is that 61% think religion is a negative influence in the world as opposed to 15% who believe the contrary - 24% neither agreed nor disagreed.
ReplyDeleteWould anti-vaxxers be comfortable with their neighbors refusing to vaccinate against, say... ebola? Or smalllpox?
ReplyDeleteAt what point does my "religious freedom" endanger the health of your family?
Perhaps it is a matter of: to participate in a society I can't be allowed to walk around with a preventable contagious disease any more than I can be allowed to drive drunk.*
In short: my 'religious freedom' isn't a 'free-pass' that allows me to be a danger to others.
* did I just compare refusing a vaccination to driving drunk? Yes. Yes I did. They are both dangerous to others and should not be allowed.