April 12, 2013
Groups that spread anti-vaccination messages should be stopped and “sanctioned”, the president of the Australian Medical Association Dr Steve Hambleton told reporters yesterday.
Dr Hambleton said anti-vaccination campaigners were putting the community in danger.
“Let’s be frank. The science is in. It protects our children. The balance of risk versus benefit is heavily weighted towards the benefit,” he said.
Dr Hambleton said anti-vaccine networks were spreading misinformation and pretending it was balanced information.
“There should be some sanction for spreading misinformation,” he said.
“They should be ashamed of themselves.”
Dr Hambleton blamed a drop in immunisation rates for outbreaks of disease in pockets of Australia, including south-east Queensland.
“We’ve seen a couple of pockets where there are outbreaks and I’m sure it’s no coincidence … it’s no coincidence that we’ve seen a measles outbreak in south-east Queensland. These are pockets where immunisation rates have fallen,” he said.
“Generally measles comes in from overseas but it won’t spread unless there’s a susceptible population and in both those areas (northern NSW and south-east Queensland) there is a susceptible population and there are anti-vaccination networks active and they should be stopped.”
- Read the full interview with Dr Hambleton on the AMA website
