I don’t like this, I really don’t.
I know I advocate for the undoubted and scientifically established benefits of vaccination and will continue to do so, but the news that the influential Fabian Society have recommended a policy of enforced vaccination is not good.
In an article for the Fabian Society, leading public health expert Sir Sandy Macara called for child benefit to be linked with vaccination uptake.
And Labour MP Mary Creagh said children should have to prove they are vaccinated before they start school to improve uptake of MMR.
Call for vaccine opt-out penalty
I’m all up for improving the uptake of MMR, I think that is a worthy and vital goal. But is this – educationally and financially punishing children – the right way to do it? Because make no mistake, the parents won’t particularly care that their kids are home schooled. And the type of parent who doesn’t vaccinate (wealthy, white middle class) won’t miss the child benefit. But the child at the heart of these penalties may well miss scholastic education. As a home schoolers ourselves (less through choice than lack of any other option) one of the things we are keenly aware our child misses is the company of her peers in an educational setting.
For those who don’t know, the Fabian Society is a ‘middle-left’ think tank that recommends policy to Labour Party members, particularly influential whilst we have a Labour government (as we do now). They reached this recommendation apparently after:
A poll by YouGov for the Fabian Society suggested that the public would back government action on MMR to address large rises in mumps and measles’ cases. It found that 63% of the public felt that immunisation only worked if everyone was covered, and only 31%felt if was purely up to families to make the choice.
YouGov are a well thought-of (in terms of results accuracy) market research agency. I’ve little doubt the figures they collected are correct. I still don’t like it though. I think that something needs to be done, but this? The penalties seem targeted to ‘hit’ the kids. It also seems tantamount to admitting that attempts to utilise the excellent, freely available science that has killed the MMR hypothesis is pointless.
I’m also frankly disturbed by this quote from Fabian review author Sir Sandy Macara:
One ought to recognise that mothers have a responsibility for ensuring their children are protected.
Mothers? Not parents?
This seems ill thought out, knee-jerk-ish and guaranteed to play into the hands of the conspiracy theorists. We need to do better – much better – than this.
Left Brain Right Brain 
I don’t like this either. Both my lads were vaccinated and I would like as many children as possible to be vaccinated, but a stick approach is not the best way. People who have doubts are not all going to want to be pressured into something they are fretting about. And what happens if they just decide to home educate, will the government then make home educating illegal? I’m glad that Tom is in a school where he is doing well and he is happy and settled, but if he wasn’t I would like to think I had the option of home educating.
I agree. This is so wrong and so typical of the paternalism of the Labour party. It is probably unworkable as well. How are they going to monitor vaccine records and child benefit? What about Travellers and Romany children? What about children with genuine reasons not to be vaccinated? Are they going to make all vaccines mandatory or just the crucial ones? Will that send a message that some vaccines are optional and therefore not needed? I’ll stop now.
You are so right that this plays into the hands of the conspiracy theorists.
Great amounts of hay has been made in the US about the “requirements” that kids be vaccinated. In almost all cases, this “requirement” means that a parent can sign a waiver and not vaccinate their children.
The problem is, the parent groups conveniently neglect to mention this when the get the press involved in the story, making it seem as though parents will ‘go to jail’ if they don’t vaccinate their children.
It works very well for the parent groups to create the illusion of a mean, forceful government.
Agreed, Matt, but I would argue that in the US we have no choice. Health care is more fragmented and expensive (to the user) here in most situations, so we need the requirement or we’d be sitting at something like 60%. I am mightily impressed that uptake is as high as it is in the UK. More diligent parents? More diligent physicians?
Forced medical decisions are wrong, even if you are atheist.
As Leeanna is an example of, we have a large subset of nutcases in America. Voluntary vaccinations, even if free, would not work. And curse them for allowing opt-outs that threaten my grandkids.