Australia's Chief Scientist Ian Chubb is fast-tracking a public paper on the importance of childhood vaccination in order to try and combat misconceptions about their personal and public value.

As the Disneyland outbreak of measles in the United States – as well as a confirmed case of measles this week on the South Coast of Australia – has reignited debate about vaccinations, Professor Chubb said his office would enter the debate in order to bring the weight of scientific evidence to the fore.

Australia's Chief Scientist Ian Chubb. Credit:Andrew Meares

"The vaccination debate is similar to the climate change debate, in that on the one side you have a very large body of scientific evidence and on the other side you don't."

"The evidence is very, very strong that vaccination has protected human beings from many diseases over many decades," Professor Chubb said.