An anti-vaccine sign of the times
There has been a deluge of responses to an anti-vaccination billboard put up in Auckland over the weekend. In response, the billboard company has now voluntarily decided to take it down. So what was the purpose behind this billboard? Those involved maintain it was to inform people of the risks from the vaccines on the national programme.
However, the childhood vaccination programme is a well-established, New Zealand Government-funded public health programme, designed and monitored by the Ministry of Health and our public health services.
Furthermore, it is in line with all international best practice advice.
Therefore, I can only assume those who put up billboards of this nature are actually saying they have no trust at all in the decision-making of New Zealand public health programmes designed to protect our children.
Maybe this is just a few disgruntled individuals with their own stories who feel they are not being heard by healthcare providers. However, I suggest there is a bigger, more international, story here that our public health programmes are caught in the middle of.
The wording and style of this poster has appeared in other high-income countries, such as the United States and Australia. We live in turbulent political times internationally with a world full of confused values and ideology.
This is getting translated to lack of trust in government authorities. Our new world feels full of brief soundbites, attention to loud opinions, often with a breath-taking disregard for honesty or accuracy.
I think this is putting enormous pressure on individuals who now feel they should not listen to the advice of the traditional ‘‘experts’’, but need to be the sole arbiters of their own destiny. The response is to become your own expert.
It feels sadly naı¨ve to assume a few hours on Google, followed by joining a social network dedicated to presenting a disgruntled view, is likely to give a better solution than internationally established public health programmes backed up by trained healthcare professionals.
It is a complex world and we can all feel fearful and out of control of our own destiny at times. This does not add up to disregarding years and years of accumulated international best public health advice.
We do not need a conversation about the rationale for established child health programmes; we need a dialogue about the origins of our fears and lack of trust in those who are employed to care for our community.