Vaccines May Soon Be Mandatory For Children In France (theverge.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: Last week, the French Health Ministry announced plans to make 11 vaccines mandatory for young children by 2018. French law currently mandates three vaccines -- diphtheria, tetanus, and polio -- for children under the age of two. The government's proposal would expand that list to include eight other vaccines -- including those against Hepatitis B, whooping cough, and measles -- that were previously only recommended. The proposal, which is to be presented to lawmakers by the end of this year, comes amid an ongoing measles outbreak across Europe, which the World Health Organization (WHO) attributed to low immunization rates. Italy passed a similar decree in May, requiring children to receive 10 vaccines as a condition for school enrollment. Germany, while stopping short of a mandate, has moved to tighten its laws on child immunization. But some experts question whether a vaccination mandate will sway public opinion in France, where distrust in vaccines has risen alarmingly in recent years. In a survey published last year, 41 percent of respondents in France disagreed with the statement that vaccines are safe -- the highest rate of distrust among the 67 countries that were surveyed, and more than three times higher than the global average.

Comments

Pearl clutch! Pearl clutch!

[Hognoxious]

OMG OMG they're trying to kill children!

Re:Pearl clutch! Pearl clutch!

[jaklode]

No, autism is not caused by anything. You are born with it (or well, you even have it before you are born). It's likely genetics, causing the brain to be wired differently (literally). Greetings from the spectrum!

Re:Pearl clutch! Pearl clutch!

[Anonymous Coward]

Until you've had to raise a vaccine injured autistic child, do not tell me about the safety or effectiveness of modern vaccines.

Until you've become a GP and worked for doctors without borders in 3rd world countries ravaged by disease, don't tell me about your unfounded dangers of vaccination.

I hope one day irrational mothers that lash out and blame anything they can on a serious disorder, causing many millions in funding to be redirected to ill-informed studies finally understand that we don't know everything about autism, but focusing on vaccine as the cause only damages everyone.

Re:Why not adults?

[mark-t]

On account of the extensive time spent in a classroom environment which is relatively densely packed, viruses tend to spread more quickly through children than through adults.

Not saying I disagree with you, mind... just pointing out why it may be that it was only with regards to children.

Re:Why not adults?

[Gravis Zero]

But why not adults too?

Children have underdeveloped immune systems and are the least hygienic humans so this makes them most vulnerable and likely to spread disease. It's worth noting that the elderly are also highly encouraged to get annual flu vaccines because they have failing immune systems and it's far more likely to kill them and the elderly people around them.

That said, it's wise for everyone to get vaccinated against that which they are most vulnerable too and most likely to contract (i.e, the seasonal flu)

I'll tell you what's unsafe.

[wickerprints]

Polio. Measles. Tuberculosis. Influenza. Rubella. Hepatitis. Smallpox.

Sadly, vaccines are a victim of their own success. Vaccines are indisputably the single most lifesaving medical development in the entire course of human history, more than surgery or anesthesia or pharmaceuticals. And perhaps it is the ultimate irony that it is only because they have worked so spectacularly well that humans, in their seemingly infinite capacity for stupidity, have somehow managed to grow to distrust them, because people in industrialized nations have almost entirely forgotten what it was like to live in a time when these diseases were not only common, but pervasive in the general population. Entire communities were decimated by polio. People have forgotten the death and the panic and the fear of these diseases.

The present situation is the result of a failure to educate. Every single child, as soon as they are able to comprehend, must be taught of the history of these pandemics. Not just a recitation of statistics; people need to be SHOWN IN GRAPHIC DETAIL what these diseases did to humanity throughout history.

People built museums to remind ourselves of the Holocaust; of the killing fields of the Khmer Rouge. Yet, for the most part, we do not educate younger generations about the horrific scope of deaths these diseases have wrought on society. Why is that? Is it really only because we care when people die at the hands of despots? Dead is dead. A virus doesn't care who you are.

Re:Great! A controlled trial!

[Kjella]

This could be a big nail in the lid of the anti-vax movement.

They're as immune to facts as the anti-evolution movement.

Re:Great! A controlled trial!

[Kjella]

They're as immune to facts as the anti-evolution movement.

That's modded as flamebait? Hilarious. As much as I try not to laugh at creationists *snicker*, at least admit you believe in it because it's in your Holy Book and it is right and so everything else is wrong. Oh wait now I get it, you're not against facts it's in the Bible so it is fact. I forget how fact and fiction works for religious people, my bad.

Re:Great! A controlled trial!

[Just Some Guy]

People in the Midwest say that if Quantum Mechanics or anything else isn't mentioned in the bible, it is wrong?

Some people in the Midwest literally do. I've heard them. I grew up around them. They'd say that QM is something "those silly scientists invented because the truth that God did it that way is too much for them to bear".

Since I live there as well, tell me where go to see this curious specimen.

Pick the evangelical church of your choice - Baptist, Assemblies of God, Mt. Trailerpark Half Gospel - and go in. Sit and be enlightened.