The death of more than 60 Samoans from their country’s latest measles outbreak shows what can happen when anti-vaxxers triumph. 

In response, Samoan authorities have arrested one anti-vaccination activist who continued to peddle and meddle in ridiculous unfounded fears. 

Australian parents who have watched the children suffer and sometimes even die from diseases like measles or whooping cough might wish the same fate could befall anti-vaccination advocates here too. 

However, we don’t need draconian laws. We need common sense and sanity to prevail ahead of hysterical nonsense.  

Measles is a totally preventable disease – and has been for decades. 

Rightly so, the Samoan Government declared a state of emergency and ordered compulsory vaccinations. 

Imagine if we all, like the Samoans, had to hang a piece of red cloth outside our homes or workplaces to allow a mass immunisation to take place at those venues where people were unvaccinated. 

If the Australian Government ordered this, there would no doubt be a case brought before the United Nations by the lefties that this was some sort of discrimination or political correctness or infringing on someone’s feelings, fluidity or flipping quirky and quacky ideas. 

Samoa is a developing country. Yes, we do still live in a world of developing and developed countries. It might be offensive to some but that’s the truth. 

Surprisingly, the hand wringing leftist media applauded this red cloth approach as the right thing to do. No doubt because it is out of sight, out of mind as they sip soy lattes and enjoy the comfortable choice of taking things for granted.  

However, I never hear the lefties being outraged over Australia being in the midst of our own continuing epidemic of falling immunisation rates. 

In October, Western Australia experienced its worst measles outbreak for two decades. An infected person who showed little remorse flew on a plane from New Zealand which is in the grip of its own outbreak. 

There were 28 confirmed cases in WA that month which added to the 2019 total of nearly 60. The state government urged everyone to get vaccinated with two mumps, measles, rubella (MMR) vaccines and offered it free to people aged 20 to 53. 

However, the outbreak soon spread to a Pilbara mine site and to the south-west of the state and so it continued. 

Ironically, New Zealand coffin makers are sending child-size coffins for victims aged between just one month and 12 years old. 

Social media posts feature emojis of a tear running down a face, urging everyone to vaccinate their children. 

We are all told this, it is nothing new.  

Yet there are disturbingly low immunisations level across Australia, attributed to the growth of anti-vaccinators peddling their misinformation across a variety of platforms.  

In 2016, The Australian ‘No Jab, No Play’ law was introduced, designed to help increase and maintain high immunisation rates for young children. 

It is linked to family welfare payments dependent on children’s vaccination status. 

Most Australians back mandatory vaccination and see it as a no-brainer for being able to prevent infectious diseases that once caused mass harm, killing thousands of children and adults. 

In 1951 in Australia there were 357 deaths from polio alone but since the vaccine was introduced, polio has practically been eradicated from our shores.  

There are still Australian survivors who suffered polio. Former federal Labor leader and current WA Governor Kim Beazley was one of the lucky ones but well remembers waking up paralysed when he was five years old.  

There have been several cases in recent memory of babies dying from whooping cough because they are too young to be vaccinated. 

Lefties love using and abusing the term “community” when it suits their agenda. Where are their voices seeking a sensible community approach to saving lives from completely preventable diseases?  

Developing nations are crying out for the vaccination opportunities we are so lucky to have in Australia. 

And so, we all have to remain vigilant and take our responsibility to vaccinate ourselves and our children seriously. 

History has a habit of repeating itself time and time again. At some point, we have to learn. 

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