Focus Shifts to Vaccinating Children to Achieve Community Herd Immunity

Announcements by pharmaceutical companies and health authorities together with recent media coverage around the world suggests that the focus is shifting to vaccinating children as young as 2 months in order to achieve herd immunity beginning in the first quarter of 2022.

The vaccination of children is being touted as a "critical step" in controlling the virus, even though the risks to children from the same virus is described by health authorities as the lowest of any age bracket.

Once the adult vaccine program gets into high gear in Australia, it is inevitable that our governments focus will turn to the children of Australia. They will most likely make the assertion that it is the only scientific way to ensure successful herd immunity in Australia.

There is already a lot of contention around the topic of vaccinating adults, so how do you feel about this focus on the vaccination of children as the key to herd immunity?

According to all the data that is available at the moment, children make up the smallest percentage of serious illness and death that is being attributed to the virus. Therefore parents would be making a mostly altruistic decision to vaccinate their children to protect the broader community.

Will the government give parents a choice in this matter, or will they apply pressure with the help of the media to push parents to vaccinate otherwise healthy children in order to serve the requirements of the broader community as dicated by the government?