No one here, including me, knows anything about vaccines except that they work 99.9% of the time and have saved millions of lives.

All I can say is that the Federal government's 'no vaccine/no benefits' rule is a good idea, and parents not having their kids vaccinated are child abusers and a threat to kids who have been vaccinated.

'No one here, including me, knows anything about vaccines except that they work 99.9% of the time and have saved millions of lives.'

don't be to quick to assume that ttbn. I know personally of at least 2 cases of people being severley disabled after receiving vaccinations. Could be just coincedence although seeing the totally dishonesty of 'scientist' with the gw religion does raise make me suspicious.

runner,

We can't reach conclusions on two cases nor on Larry Pickering's claim that vaccination is to blame for his son's autism or whatever it is he has; nor can we rely on scientists, who are human beings are are just as good or rotten as anyone else, as shown by your reference to the AGW fraud they have perpetrated on us. The problem is, many people have now given scientists the status of gods. Some of us are going backwards to the ancients and the many gods they had: the god of this, the god of that. The one God is out of date, only ever invoked when people want someone to blame for their own stupidity or shortcomings.

So, none of us really knows. All I do is think about the huge majority of kids who have not suffered from vaccination and who might have otherwise died of what seems to be an increasing number of thinning-out diseases

Even if a disease like polio might through vaccination be unusual in Australia, parents need to remember that when their unvaccinated children grow up they will probably be travelling to part of the world where the diseases are common.

Where parents are not seeing the disease around them they may consider that any slight risk of vaccination outweighs the benefit. You see the perfect infant in your arms and would do everything to protect it. That is when emotion cannot be allowed to rule and we should seek the informed professional opinion of the government health authority and doctors.

If anyone wants to know what horrendous damage results from anti-vax misinformation and scaremongering (that affects vulnerable parents), there is the example of thousands of Indian girls who because of a scare (misinterpretation run with by the media, 'false news') will never receive the protection of the Australian wonder vaccine against the scourge of the lethal papillomavirus that world-wide kills a quarter of a million people a year. It is the 9th common cause of infective disease death. It could have been practically wiped out in India, now generations of women will suffer.

leoj,

Not sure that there is much "informed professional opinion" to be had from health authorities and doctors these days. The general dumbing down has seeped into all levels. While I am pro- vaccination - more from the angle that anti- vaccinators have no right to put other people's kids at risk - I fully understand the mistrust of bureaucrats and 'experts'.

Human instinct for self-preservation is the prime factor in warding off diseases but, given the increase in deadly diseases, I can't help but ponder if nature is trying to do a bit of culling, which comes from burgeoning populations that can't look after themselves, nor live together peacefully together.

ttbn,

I don't believe that the parents who refuse vaccination for the children are always fools. Parents, especially mothers are protective of their infants and are very vulnerable. As a father I am very protective of my children, even though they are not minors. A mother's protection goes beyond that and I daresay that only mothers can understand the uniqueness of that caring.

Mothers especially need to be reassured of the enormous research and trials that vaccinations (and drugs) must go through. So onerous and the time lag is so long that it is only because government prevails on the good citizenship of the laboratories and helps with some sponsorship, that the work continues.

They should know too that a risk of 1:1000 presents a certainty of infection for (say) measles and even where the likelihood of some awful consequence could be lower, the consequence itself may be catastrophic for the child.

Mothers, parents, get the vaccinations up to date for yourselves and your infants.