Anti-anti-vaccination campaign in Australia

Vaccination is one of great invention of human to protect ourselves from critical diseases. Therefore, making your children vaccinated is obligated in many countries. The spread of vaccination has reduced the death rate of infants and toddlers by a considerable grade.

However, there are some people claiming that vaccination is no more effective or even harmful for children. They protect that children should be vaccine-free. Such activities were often seen so far. But recently, social media have a crucial role in spreading their claims. Some people even among nurse and midwives easily believe their erroneous thought. If some influential people are infiltrated by their biased opinion, the anti-vaccination campaign will be highly ignited. It will lead to mortality of innocent children, specialists warn.

An Australian authority has carried out a radical solution. The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia made a statement on this issue. In the comment, it is mentioned that promoting anti-vaccination can deserve to act to be prosecuted.

The Guardian: Australian nurses who spread anti-vaccination messages face prosecution

I think this statement is a little aggressive. Most subjects of vaccination are children. They should be protected by adults. Letting them without vaccination means a deprivation of the right to live a healthy life, as I guess the intention of this statement. I have to accept the seriousness of the issue around anti-vaccination campaign.

On the other hand, some specialists are concerned about the adverse influence of this statement. Threatening attitude to protesters can make them rather more rigid.

The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia commented,“The board expects all registered nurses, enrolled nurses and midwives to use the best available evidence in making practice decisions.” I completely agree with this statement. As a professional of medical science, we have to adhere to the best evidence currently available. Of course, evidence-based medicine is not perfect. Nonetheless, it is usually more trustworthy than superstitious ideas or intuition derived from people without expertise.

I hope rational and calm discussion about everything. It has not been entirely proven that all of the vaccination is cost-effective. Critical thinking, repeated inspection, and amendment following concurrent situation are necessary to improve the quality of hygiene and health care. Both superstitions and indulgence to science should be avoided.