Rachel Smalley: Vaccination should be compulsory

Vaccination should be compulsory. It should be law, writes Rachel Smalley. File photo

He was the 2014 New Zealander of the Year, and I think we should make him the 2017 New Zealander of the Year too.

Dr Lance O'Sullivan. He's dedicated much of his professional career to improving the health of the disadvantaged, and his stance in Kaitaia this week at the screening of the controversial movie Vaxxed where he stood up and told the audience the anti-immunisation movement was killing children.

Well, that is to be applauded.

He told the audience that he had come to the screening "with a lot of anger" because he was so opposed to the spreading of misinformation and lies by the anti-immunisation movement, and it was killing children.

I don't know why we continue to question the science of this.

It's there for everyone to see. Vaccination saves lives. And in particular it saves the lives of children.

I live in an area with a low immunisation rate compared with the rest of the country, and when something pops up -- like measles -- I wait, and sure enough it hits our area. And if often hits adults because when we're vaccinated, we don't always develop immunity.

And so you rely on the vast majority of the population having immunity, and that stops some of the world's worst diseases taking hold.

I'm talking about diptheria, measles, tetanus, hib, polio, hep b, whooping cough. Truly hideous diseases.

And yet we still have this anti-immunisation movement who won't vaccinate their children.

Travel to countries in the horn of Africa, or central Asian countries like Afghanistan. Have a look at what happens when people have no access to a vaccination programme. I was in India in the 90s and saw what polio does to people. It's horrendous.

And so I can only imagine when someone works at the coalface of medicine -- someone like Dr Lance O'Sullivan who he's made it his life work to improve the health of the disadvantaged -- I can only imagine the frustration he feels when the anti-vaccination movement rolls into town.

This movie Vaxxed claims the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine is linked to autism and there's been a huge cover-up by the American Government.

I stand on the side of science, not conspiracy.

And I stand on the side of the medical professionals who say you must vaccinate. We all should. We should all listen to Dr Lance O'Sullivan who says he has held a baby on the verge of death after contracting a disease that could have been prevented by a vaccine.

And even though he helps the most disadvantaged in this country, he also believes benefits should be tagged to immunisation. If you're on a benefit and your baby isn't immunised, you should face financial consequences, he says.

I would go one step further and say vaccination should be compulsory. It should be law.

And Dr Lance O'Sullivan should be New Zealander of the Year, again.