Vax rates hit record high

Minister hails ‘incredible outcome’ as Australia nears herd immunity

AUSTRALIA’S vaccination rates have hit yet another record high, with figures revealing five-year-olds are 94.9 per cent fully vaccinated, just 0.1 per cent off the gold standard of 95 per cent.

A 95 per cent rate provides what is called herd immunity, whereby diseases such as measles cannot get a foothold in the community. Anything less than 90 per cent represents a danger to herd immunity.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said the September quarter figures were heartening in the face of earlier reports that children were missing out on vaccinations due to the pandemic and lockdowns.

Vaccination rates at the beginning of the year, before the pandemic, were 94.78 per cent.

“Australia is one of the great vaccination nations of the world,” Mr Hunt said.

“The fact we are now approaching 95 per cent vaccination rate for our five-yearolds’ childhood immunisation rates, that’s been an incredible outcome.”

Mr Hunt paid tribute to No Jab No Play/Pay campaigns that were launched in 2013 to address falling immunisation rates and resulted in the laws being changed.

In 2011, vaccination rates were at 89 per cent for fiveyear-olds.

“Programs such as No Jab No Play and No Jab No Pay have played a critical role in that,” Mr Hunt said.

Although the pandemic had resulted in online anti-vaccination activity intensifying, Mr Hunt said the anti-vaxxers were failing.

“Because of the pandemic it has been more noise but less effect, because the hard evidence is through June and September each of those quarters has seen successively higher, record immunisation rates for our five-year-olds,’’ he said.

“In June we went to 94.8 per cent for five-year-olds, a record – for Indigenous kids 96.9 per cent, a record – and then in September again, we have new figures that show record immunisation rates, up 0.1 per cent to 94.9 per cent.

“We are nearly at the magic 95 per cent, but we will keep going to get there and, for Indigenous, it’s 97 per cent.

“So, not only have we maintained our immunisation rates, but through the height of the pandemic we have increased our immunisation rates.”

A study published in the

Medical Journal of Australia in October found catch-up programs for incompletely vaccinated children were higher after No Jab No Pay laws came in linking immunisation to family payments.

“Linking family assistance payments with childhood vaccination status and associated program improvements were followed by substantial catchup vaccination activity, particularly in young people from families of lower socio-economic status,” the study found.