Pro-vaccine Victorian paediatrician, Dr. Jenny Royle, strongly criticised the Victorian No Jab No Play law during a panel discussion at the 2018 National Immunisation Conference held in Adelaide during June.

I vehemently oppose the Victorian law, No Jab No Play.  […]  I don’t want people to be disadvantaged by strategies to increase immunisation coverage, and the Victorian law, No Jab No Play, disadvantages children and their families.  I think denying a child entry into kindergarten is wrong. I think it’s a disproportionate response to the risk that a fully immunised child has in being in a kindergarten with a very small number of children who aren’t 100% up-to-date with their immunisations, and that risk is disproportionate to the punishment.

Listen to all of her comments in the short video provided below.

 
Watch the full No Jab No Pay/Play panel discussion

Her comments follows criticism by the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) of a similar law proposed in South Australia last year.

In a media release issued by the AVN in November 2017 we referred to a letter which the RACP had written to the South Australia Health Department condemning the proposal to deny children entry to childcare and pre-school:

The Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) has written to the South Australian health department expressing its concern about the proposed ‘No Jab No Play’ law, which, in its current form, would deny unvaccinated children access to childcare and pre-school.

As paediatricians who advocate for the welfare of children, we are bound to draw attention to the enormous body of research demonstrating the benefits of childhood education before school commencement, especially in disadvantaged households. Denial of this access is a serious matter, with likely long-term adverse consequences for the healthy development of the children involved. In this context, the risk of VPDs to fully vaccinated children from children who are under-vaccinated is often exaggerated.

As an alternative, the RACP has suggested a ‘No Form No Play’ policy, which would require parents to provide vaccination status records prior to enrolment, but would not require the children of those parents opposed to vaccination to be vaccinated.

Read the rest of the media release Pro-vaccine doctors group opposes South Australia’s proposed ‘No Jab No Play’ law.