by Tasha David

The Australian just published an article stating that Dr Paul Willis from the Royal Institute of Australia (RiAus) believes that unvaccinated children should be isolated (segregated) in not only schools, but other public facilities as well.

Yes, that is right. In 2015, Dr Willis is calling for the segregation of children!

You can be forgiven for thinking that we are actually talking about the 1950’s when segregation of children in schools and public was commonplace, even though that policy was based on the colour of one’s skin. This time however, the focus is on one’s vaccination status.

How would this be enforced? Will there be signs stating ‘No unvaccinated allowed’ or ‘Vaccinated only’? Or will our children wear a symbol of some kind to indicate whether they are indeed now untouchables?

It is absolutely inconceivable to me that any educated person would try to bring us back to a time when segregation and discrimination plagued our society. Has nothing been learned from the end of Apartheid in South Africa or the civil rights movement in the US?

What reason would any person have for calling for such draconian measures in Australia or any other developed country?

Dr Paul Willis, who is he?

Is he an immunologist, infectious disease expert, a GP or a medically-trained expert? According to his bio on the RiAus website, he is a vertebrate palaeontologist whose specialty is in reptile fossils, rocks and dinosaurs. Yet his view about vaccination is being held up as something to take notice of.

Meanwhile, Dr Viera Scheibner, an Australian retired senior scientist and critic of vaccination who has an extensive and well-respected scientific background in a similar speciality, micropalaeontology, and has studied well over 100,000 pages of medical research data about vaccination, has been criticised for not being properly qualified to speak about vaccination. Go figure!

So what has changed?

Fast forward to 2015 and we are greeted with headlines in major newspapers like

No jab, no play: children face lockout from childcare

RiAus director Dr Paul Willis says children whose parents refuse to vaccinate them should be isolated from others

Jail ‘anti-vax’ parents: Column

You could not be blamed for thinking that they are talking about terrorists rather than healthy children and their loving parents. The fear and hatred that these media outlets are carelessly creating is having a horrific effect on parents. There is a line being drawn and families are being divided, friendships lost and politicians looking for ways to punish parents for not complying with supposedly ‘optional’ medical interventions.

Discrimination and segregation ideals that used to be abhorred in the post-apartheid era are now being called for vehemently by everyday Australian parents and scientists against other everyday Australian parents.

Why the hate and fear towards the non-vaccinated?

The Australian vaccination rates in 1995 were around 53% for fully vaccinated children under 6 and yet there were no epidemics of Whooping Cough and certainly no parents terrified of non-vaccinated children spreading deadly diseases. Nowadays the vaccination rate in Australia is around 92-93% so they are higher than they have ever been.

Routine childhood diseases are not worse than they were in the past, with the exception of Whooping Cough which has become more prevalent. The growth in Whooping Cough cases may actually have been caused by the pertussis vaccination itself. A recent study by the University of New South Wales has shown that the Pertussis bacteria has actually evolved, not only in Australia but simultaneously in other highly vaccinated countries, to avoid being affected by the vaccine. There are also animal studies showing the acellular pertussis vaccine actually inhibits the ability of the immune system to fight a similar bacteria, parapertussis, also inflating the number of pertussis cases. And as for vaccinating ‘for the herd’, animal studies have shown that vaccinated individuals pass on the disease to others. Even the FDA, an American health authority, has warned that vaccinated individuals pose an infection risk to infants.

In the 90’s when I was raising my eldest children, no one knew or cared whether I vaccinated them (even though I did) and I didn’t know or care if other parents at school or childcare did either. There was no media-fuelled hysteria instilling fear in us about these so called deadly diseases, we knew them as childhood diseases that we all went through and that afterwards, we would have lifetime immunity.

Fear…unsubstantiated fear…

So the only real difference I see between the 90’s and now is that we have a media, government and a medical machine that is whipping up fear, hysteria and persecution of innocent children and their parents.

I originally wrote a blog called Anti vaxxer: the new dirty word. In it, I said that the vilification and discrimination against unvaccinated children would lead to segregation and persecution. As the headlines here in Australia and over in the United States show, my warnings are coming to fruition.

“If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.” ― Malcolm X

This quote rings especially loud right now….

Please note: Blog posts are opinion pieces which represent the views of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the viewpoints of the AVN National Committee. The AVN is a forum, support and information organisation and outlet for discussion about the relative benefits and risks of vaccinations in particular – and medical procedures in general. We do not provide medical advice but believe that everyone has the opportunity and the obligation to do their own research before making decisions for their families. The information we provide (including your personal review of the references we cite) should be taken in conjunction with a range of other data, including that obtained from government, your health care provider and/or other medical source material to assist you in developing the knowledge required to make informed health choices.