It has recently come to our attention that even children homeschooled via Distance Education (in the pre-school programme) are subject to the vaccination requirement under the New South Wales (NSW) No Jab No Play law.

During 2017, the right to conscientiously object to vaccination, for the purpose of enrolment in early education and childcare services in NSW, was abolished, effective from 01 January 2018.

Note that the vaccination requirement does not apply to homeschooled children who use their own, individual programme.  Nor does it apply to children enrolled in the compulsory phase of schooling.  Well, not yet anyway.

The NSW Education department website states:

Under the NSW Public Health Act 2010, immunisation procedures apply to all preschoolers including those enrolling in distance education. These procedures help to improve childhood immunisation rates and support the management of outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases.

Needless to say, there is no public health imperative that would justify such an intrusive law, even if one was to subscribe to the belief that vaccination is effective in preventing disease.

The NSW Distance Education page states:

Distance education is an equity program for NSW students who are geographically isolated or whose individual circumstances prevent them from regularly attending school.

Apart from geographically isolated and highly gifted children, many children who are homeschooled have special needs, including developmental disabilities that were caused by vaccination in the first place.  When the parents of these children choose to no longer vaccinate, they will now have the additional burden of designing a pre-school programme suitable for their disabled children – all without the assistance of qualified special needs educators.

Are door to door vaccination nurses targeting homeschoolers next on the agenda in Australia?  Well, it’s not such a leap.  It’s been happening in the U.S. for years.