'Falling below herd immunity' AMA sounds alarm on WA vaccination rates
Dr Michael Page, outgoing president of the Australian Medical Association's WA branch, says the state government must urgently address falling vaccination rates.
"Influenza hits our hospitals really hard every year," Dr Page told Nadia Mitsopoulos.
"It's hitting them hard at the moment. If we didn't have anyone being admitted to hospital with respiratory illnesses like influenza and COVID, that would take a serious load off the hospitals. It would reduce ramping.
"It would reduce the burnout that our clinicians are facing, and of course, it would keep patients healthier."
He said falling childhood vaccination rates were of particular concern.
"Diseases like measles, diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough) — these illnesses that can cause death and disability in children, the vaccinations are absolutely safe. They've been used for many decades. And yet we're seeing a reluctance of parents to vaccinate their children, which is just extraordinary.
"If our vaccination rates for children drop much lower, we will be sitting below a herd immunity threshold for some of these childhood illnesses."
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