
In the last few months, the anti-vax movement in Australia has attracted significant attention.
First, Shanelle Cartwright, the wife of NRL football star Bryce Cartwright, went public via social media to her more than 7000 followers about her decision to not vaccinate her children.
Then it was announced that Taylor Winterstein, the wife of NRL player Frank Winterstein, would be hosting a $200 workshop warning people about the ‘risks’ that come with vaccinations.
Days later, controversial chef Pete Evans endorsed an anti-vaxxer on his Facebook page.
To be clear – the World Health Organisation (WHO) states that “immunisation is a proven tool for controlling and eliminating life-threatening infectious diseases,” and estimate that each year, it averts “between 2 and 3 million deaths”.
Late last year, the WHO confirmed that the anti-vax movement has prompted a 30 per cent jump in measles cases worldwide, and has since listed “vaccine hesitancy” as one of the 10 global health threats of 2019.
Even Facebook is cracking down, recently announcing that we’ll see less and less anti-vax content in our feeds because they’re weeding it out and removing it from society’s peripheral.
The Quicky explores the latest anti-vaxxers to pollute the system. Post continues after podcast.
But time and time again, vaccinations have been proven to be safe, and the biggest myths around them have been debunked.