{"id":29763,"date":"2013-04-11T19:20:02","date_gmt":"2013-04-11T09:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=29763"},"modified":"2020-09-22T10:40:52","modified_gmt":"2020-09-22T00:40:52","slug":"anti-vaccine-groups-should-be-stopped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2013\/04\/11\/anti-vaccine-groups-should-be-stopped\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-Vaccine Groups ‘Should Be Stopped’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"AMA<\/a>
AMA President Dr Steve Hambleton (Photo: AMA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

April 12, 2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

Groups that spread anti-vaccination messages should be stopped and “sanctioned”, the president of the Australian Medical Association Dr Steve Hambleton told reporters yesterday.<\/p>\n

Dr Hambleton said anti-vaccination campaigners were putting the community in danger.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

Dr Hambleton said anti-vaccine networks were spreading misinformation and pretending it was balanced information.<\/p>\n

“There should be some sanction for spreading misinformation,” he said.<\/p>\n

“They should be ashamed of themselves.”<\/p>\n

Dr Hambleton blamed a drop in immunisation rates for outbreaks of disease in pockets of Australia, including south-east Queensland.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n