The Irish Examiner View: We are too tolerant of anti-vaxxers’ voodoo

The coronavirus epidemic has ended any remaining ambivalence about the need for absolute discipline on vaccinations.

Last October an outbreak of measles began in Samoa. Before it was contained 76 people — more than 60 of them children under four — died. That outbreak was made probable when vaccinations rates fell after two infants died in 2018 when the MMR vaccine was incorrectly administered. During the outbreak a state of emergency was declared in the country of 200,000 people and a mass vaccination campaign imposed.

Health workers went door-to-door to deliver immunisations. Before the tragedy was contained the country ran out of child-sized coffins. It was defeated when confidence in proven medicine, and vaccinations in particular, was restored.