Vaccination has been and is increasingly becoming controversial when it comes to building immunity against diseases. Though mainstream media heavily promotes vaccines, in many places, the population looks upon vaccine with doubt regarding its efficacy and safety.
Canada’s
CTV News informs that in 2012, vaccination rates remained low in Vancouver’s North Shore — a region where most of the population is known to be well-informed and health-conscious. The story tells that only about two-third of the children in the area were vaccinated against diseases like polio, whooping cough, and tetanus.
In Australia,
Sydney Morning Herald tells that Sydney’s affluent suburbs show the lowest “immunization” rates in the country — referring by “immunization” to vaccination. President of the Australian Medical Association (NSW) was quoted saying that vaccines have only "very low and minor" side effects.
Governments usually promote vaccination, and have been criticized by skeptics of vaccines for serving pharmaceutical industry’s interests. Putting various kinds of pressure on civilians to goad them toward vaccination is also common observation in different parts of the world. In Australia, the government
reportedly influenced people into abstaining from donating to a charity that advocated against vaccination. In countries like Pakistan, scare tactics have also been used by the government to
force people into vaccination their children.
The low rates of vaccination among well-informed and affluent segment of the population in Australia and Canada leads to the interesting question of whether it’s awareness or lack of it that stops many parents from vaccinating their children.
