Australia Is Imposing Fines On Parents Who Don’t Vaccinate Their Children
Australia has toughened its stance on citizens not vaccinating their children, strengthening their ‘no jab, no pay’ policy. Parents who haven’t vaccinated their children, or whose children aren’t up to date with vaccinations, will lose $28 per child each fortnight.
The deductions will be made to their tax benefits, and a previous fine was in place where parents would lose $737 from their family tax benefit at the end of each year. While the new amount is lesser; it will come every two weeks and serve as a constant reminder to parents to vaccinate their children. Families that earn more than $80 per day will also face heftier penalties.
This move is an attempt to increase vaccination rates, as 0.23 percent of parents with children under seven objected to vaccinations in 1999, to 1.77 percent in 2014. Minister for Social Services Dan Tehan said “immunization is the safest way to protect children from vaccine-preventable diseases. Parents who don’t immunise their children are putting their own kids at risk as well as the children of other people.”
Vaccinations are vital to ensure diseases cannot survive; and to protect those who cannot receive vaccines. Individuals with low immunity or suffering from other health issues may not be able to receive vaccines as it could cause more harm than good. Herd immunity is a term that is used for when the majority of a population is vaccinated, protecting those who cannot be vaccinated.
This comes after the United Kingdom had 643 cases of measles in the first six months of this year, far larger than the 275 cases in the whole of 2017.
