‘Give kids jab or get f ined €2,500’ plan by German minister

GERMANY’S health minister is proposing f i nes f or parents of school-age children who haven’t been vaccinated for measles. The move comes amid concern that the highly contagious and potentially deadly disease could make a comeback.

In an interview published yesterday with Bild am Sonntag, minister Jens Spahn said parents who can’t prove their children have been vaccinated for measles should have to pay up to €2,500.

The minister also proposed that children without measles vaccinations be banned from going to day-care facilities, to protect others who are too young or medically unable to receive immunisation.

The comments will add to the growing debate here over the possibility of mandatory vaccinations for childhood diseases.

Health Minister Simon Harris has stated that he ‘instinctively’ supports the idea of banning unvaccinated children from going to schools MOVE: Minister Jens Spahn or creches. However, he said there may be a constitutional barrier to this, and he has asked the Attorney General to examine whether such a ban would be lawful.

Under the Constitution, all children have the right to receive an education – and many believe that denying an unvaccinated child access to school would be a breach of this right. However if a schools ban were declared unconstitutional, an alternative suggestion has been to withdraw Child Benefit from the parents of unvaccinated children.

Minister Harris has also ordered a review of what rules apply i n other European countries, 11 of which have some f orm of mandatory vaccination rules.

Tasoieach Leo Varadkar has also said that a mandatory vaccination system is one that has to be examined given the growing outbreaks of preventable childhood diseases.

The most recent available figures show that more than 1,100 cases of mumps and measles have been recorded in Ireland this year alone.

The i ncidence of both diseases – once thought to have been effectively wiped out by the MMR vaccine – has soared amid internet-fuelled scares about the vaccines, even though all international medical evidence has shown them to be safe.

Compulsory medical procedures, including vaccinations, are a politically sensitive issue in Germany and it’s unclear whether Mr Spahn’s proposal, which has yet to be discussed by his Cabinet, will be implemented. But worries that a disease once thought under control could re-emerge as a major threat has experts calling for vaccinations to be stepped up.

The head of the German Medical Association, Frank Ulrich Montgomery, welcomed Mr Spahn’s proposal, telling Germany’s RND media group that it was ‘an important step at the right time’.

Germany had 203 reported cases of measles in the first ten weeks of this year, more than twice as many as the same period last year but fewer than in 2017. Switzerland last week reported two adult deaths from measles this year. One was in an unvaccinated man of about 30 and another in a man of about 70 whose immune system had been compromised by cancer.

Experts generally say if more than 95% of the population is properly immunised, measles is effectively contained.

However, pockets of unvaccinated children or adults can cause flare-ups, as is the case in the United States, which has had over 700 cases this year in an outbreak that has not been halted.

news@dailymail.ie

They could face day-care ban