Italian children will be banned from nursery school unless their parents have them vaccinated. With cases of diseases like measles on the rise, the government approved a package of measures on July 28, and today released a circular explains the measures in full. The legislation makes 10 vaccines obligatory for admission to nursery and elementary schools for children up to six years old, while four others are strongly recommended. An exception will be made only if a family doctor or paediatrician certifies that the child is allergic to vaccines. Parents who fail to comply will face fines of up to 500 euros.

The Minister of Health Beatrice Lorenzin said the measures provided “a shield for our children against the very serious diseases that are still among us”. Mandatory vaccinations were dropped for school admissions in Italy almost 20 years ago and since then the number of 2-year-olds being inoculated against measles has fallen to under 80%, well below the World Health Organization’s recommended threshold of 95%.

As opposition to vaccines continues to grow, cases of measles rose by a factor of more than 5 in April compared to the same month last year, according to official figures. The Bambino Gesu hospital in Rome had 47 admissions, up from just 4 in the same period last year, of which 18 had complications. And around 20,000 children are thought to be at risk of infectious diseases after it was revealed that a nurse in Treviso pretended to vaccinate children, but threw away the phials.

Social media provide fertile ground for conspiracy theories: populist politicians are often quick to exploit them. The growing scepticism towards vaccinations in Italy has been in part fuelled by the Five Star Movement (M5S), which voted against the new measures, as did the Northern League (LN). Their arguments are couched in terms of freedom of choice, with one LN health official in Liguria calling the law “a return to fascism”. But this argument ignores everything we know about “herd immunity”, the level of coverage required to prevent a disease from spreading through the population and endangering vulnerable members who cannot be vaccinated. By preventing infections, vaccines also reduce the use of antibiotics and the growth of resistance to them.

Scepticism about vaccines is by no means unique to Italy. In France, Marine Le Pen is opposing a plan to increase the number of mandatory vaccines for children to eleven, including measles. And in the United States, tens of thousands of parents are refusing to vaccinate their children. Donald Trump made a typically carefully argued, evidence-backed case against vaccines in 2014 via Twitter: “Healthy young child goes to doctor, gets pumped with massive shot of many vaccines, doesn't feel good and changes - AUTISM. Many such cases!”

The overwhelming mass of experts are united in stating that there is no causal link between vaccination and autism, but just as with climate change, a sizable minority of people around the world remain unconvinced. Americans in particular have reasons to be sceptical of “the medical establishment” and “Big Pharma”. And for years, the tobacco industry was able to trot out experts ready to swear that smoking was not harmful. As British politician Michael Gove put it, people “have had enough of experts”. Gove should – in fact, almost certainly does –­ know better, as do many of the others who exploit the fears and doubts of a public that no longer knows who to believe. But he is right that people have lost faith in politicians, business and scientists. Unless the “establishment” ups its game and finds a way to rebuild trust with its communities, the likes of Grillo, Trump and Le Pen will continue to fill and exploit the vacuum.

Tag: Gove, Grillo, Italy, Lorenzin, measles, vaccination

Scritto in Italian life, Italian politics | 2 Commenti »