Nurses In Australia Face Punishment For Promoting Anti-Vaccination Messages Via Social Media (medicalxpress.com)

HughPickens.com writes: Medical Express reports that nurses and midwives promoting anti-vaccination messages in Australia could face punishment including being slapped with a caution and having their ability to practice medicine restricted. Serious cases could be referred to an industry tribunal, where practitioners could face harsher penalties such as having their registration suspended or cancelled. The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia released the vaccination standards in response to what it described as a small number of nurses and midwives promoting anti-vaccination via social media. The statement also urges members of the public to report nurses or midwives promoting anti-vaccination. Promoting false, misleading or deceptive information is an offense under national law and is prosecutable by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency. "The board will consider whether the nurse or midwife has breached their professional obligations and will treat these matters seriously," the statement said. However Dr. Hannah Dahlen, a professor of midwifery at the University of Western Sydney and the spokeswoman for the Australian College of Midwives, worries the crackdown may push people with anti-vaccination views further underground. "The worry is the confirmation bias that can occur, because people might say: 'There you go, this is proof that you can't even have an alternative opinion.' It might in fact just give people more fuel for their belief systems."

Comments

Authoritarian rule

[Bongo]

The great thing about authoritarian rule is it is efficient and forces compliance.

The bad thing is when it enforces a wrong policy and causes more harm.

And the trouble is, in life we can never really know whether an idea is correct. So there is always a risk.

Which is why flexibility is needed to some extent, and you always have to step back and say, ok, how can we be so sure?

Right now for example, Australia has been banning a surgeon who has been saying that maybe it isn't such a good idea that diabetics eat sugar.

So whilst vaccinations may seem a perfectly good example of a place where the authorities must take control and implement a view for public safety, it doesn't mean that's always the right call, by default.

It is always and often a risky call. Group-think bias is common amongst anyone who is a human being, expert or not.

Whilst taking action, we need ways to keep checking and keep open the possibility that the experts might be wrong. And we need to take action. And they could be wrong. Anything other than that is just more group-think.

It really isn't enough to say "it is science". You always need to ask, what specifically did they do to figure that thing out? In plain language. How realiable was that method of figuring it out?

Then be as authoritarian as you like in enforcing it.

Re:If vaccination worked

[Maritz]

You're a troll who already knows about herd immunity and is hoping someone writes and angry post to you about it. Spotted. Sorry bud. Try harder.

Re: ...sufficiently tested by now

[slashrio]

Surprisingly enough it isn't tested. There is no 'golden standard' scientific test carried out (randomised double blind controlled trial) that proves either the efficacy or the safety of the 'measles vaccines', let alone the triple cocktail of MMR, which many facts suggest is responsible for many cases of autism if administered at a too young age.
When the brilliant and promising Dr. Andrew Wakefield pointed out that he is not against measles vaccination and merely suggested to separate the measles vaccine from the MMR vaccine and postpone the schedule of it by 6 months, he was literally crucified by 'his' medical establishment.
Mind you, he clearly stated that he is not against vaccination and only wanted a schedule which science suggested would be more safe, and that was enough for the 'big pharma' to have him destroyed, and for the British government to refuse separate vaccines to be administered, heck, even to enter the country.
These for me are big red flags!

Re:About time.

[Anonymous Coward]

Im sad you didnt die. No truly. anyone who thinks people should be jailed for their opinions or beliefs deserves to fucking die!