>> There used to be some sort of system for this. Around 1973 there was a
>> panic around smallpox and we had to have vaccination certificates for a holiday in France.
>>
The 1978 Birmingham case? The local Medical Officer of Health and a nurse turned up at our house one evening in 1962 to vaccinate us against smallpox because my younger brother had been taken regularly for treatment at Bradford Royal Infirmary where there had been smallpox patients. Proper injections with those big scary glass syringes!
I keep seeing the comment, even from apparently intelligent commentators, that accepting vaccination is or must be an individual decision. Without further qualification, this misses the point that diseases are a threat to society as a whole and vaccination in general as a means of protecting everybody depends on enough people participating.
Measles vaccine is a good example. It can't be given to young babies, and I think is now normally given as part of MMR from 12 months. My daughter caught measles at 6 months, fortunately recovering without permanent harm as far as we know, as a result of an outbreak that need not have happened had participation been higher.
Throughout the history of vaccines, when a disease has been successfully suppressed uptake has declined despite attempts by public health bodies to maintain widespread immunity. The result is a resurgence of disease.
I hope the history of smallpox and how it was eradicated is on the national curriculum.
Compulsion is another question, but if we are to accept that compulsion is off the agenda then in my opinion limitations on the movement on those who won't play the game should be on it.
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