Public opinion on vaccines

A 2002 survey of New Zealand mothers' attitudes towards immunisation found that 88 percent felt vaccines were effective.

However, 12 percent of respondents felt otherwise (they had concerns about vaccine safety and/or effectiveness). Similar beliefs today might prevent us from reaching the Ministry's target of 95 percent coverage.

Responses from our members ranged from those who thought vaccinations should be compulsory to those who wouldn't touch them with a barge pole. Several complained about poor-quality information: "The literature on immunisation is too generalised: dumbing down the issue to 'vaccinate your child or be labelled a bad parent' or 'don't vaccinate your child, it's Russian roulette!'"

Over-selling the message?

There was some criticism of the objectivity of Ministry of Health information during the two-year Meningococcal B campaign. For example, a 2007 study of 21 Christchurch parents published in The New Zealand Medical Journal reported that those who chose to immunise and those who didn't frequently found Ministry publicity unbalanced.

The Immunisation Awareness Society's Sue Claridge says "the campaign was based on fear and directed at school kids ... Kids - up until the age of 14 or 15 - should have no role in the decision-making process."

Research about the MeNZB vaccine carried out before the campaign showed many New Zealanders knew about the disease but didn't think it was relevant to them. So Ministry fact sheets and media campaigns tried to raise the perception of risk.

The campaign worked. Paediatrician Dr Lennon says: "To give three doses of vaccine to the entire child population of a country is pretty amazing. We didn't achieve 100 percent coverage - but the rate was pretty high and exceptionally high in Pacific Island kids who normally have very low immunisation rates."

Our Pacific Island community had the highest rate of the Meningococcal B epidemic strain: 36.9 cases per 100,000 people at the height of the epidemic compared with 24.9 per 100,000 for Maori and 6.0 per 100,000 for Europeans.