‘No jab, no pay’ – no way
The National Party has fired back about a ‘‘no jab, no pay’’ strategy for targeting measles, saying, it’s ‘‘too intrusive’’ and would target the poor.
Yesterday prominent Northland doctor Lance O’sullivan hit out at the country’s response to the measles outbreak.
O’sullivan has reiterated his call for New Zealand to adopt Australia’s ‘‘no jab, no pay’’ strategy and introduce a higher tax rate for those who do not vaccinate their children.
‘‘You’ve got to hit both ends of the spectrum here. It’s not just about welfare bashing,’’ he said on Newstalk ZB.
But National’s associate health spokesman Shane Reti told Stuff
that his and the party’s view was that the strategy was ‘‘too intrusive on the family’’.
‘‘You’re disproportionately going to hurt those on the benefit, it won’t affect the rich. It will hugely increase inequity.
‘‘It creates a barrier. You want people to come to you as a GP readily and quickly. We try really hard as a profession to be open.’’
He said parents should be supported and given as much information as possible.
O’sullivan said the Government’s ‘‘kid gloves’’ needed to come off.
‘‘We actually have to take the kid gloves off and say the country and the society needs people that lead and sometimes that means making decisions that are bold and courageous and sometimes not that popular.’’
His comments come as the number of confirmed cases of measles in the country reached 937, 804 of them in Auckland.
Reti told Stuff that in his own long career as a GP and now as an MP, he has run into several antivaxxers and always tries to provide them with the science.
‘‘I have seen that position become more entrenched. And that’s probably through the internet where you can cluster more easily with people who might hold that view.
‘‘I have seen more resistance. But let’s also remember if we go back 30 years, I was still seeing the tail-end of polio.’’
Because polio was eradicated some years ago, it meant people were in a ‘‘comfort zone’’ as they don’t remember what diseases like that were like, he said.
The debate around measles comes as the country battles its
worst measles epidemic in more than 20 years. South Auckland had been hit particularly hard, and hundreds of unvaccinated Manurewa High School students have been told to stay home.
People most affected by the outbreak have been children and those aged between 13 and 19.
Middlemore Hospital has established a dedicated ‘‘measles ward’’ to deal with the influx of children admitted each day.
Young babies were the most vulnerable, and the first MMR vaccine has been brought forward from 15 to 12 months in Auckland to try to address this.
Health officials are urging people to get vaccinated and the Government activated a national response late last week. The head of Auckland’s Starship Children’s Hospital warned some children were likely to die because of the outbreak.