Pakistani parents who don't get their children vaccinated (against polio and other illnesses) may spend a month in jail
This legislation pending in one province harks back to the bad old days of Pakistan's mask mandate—enforced by the police with Taser Guns
This would seem to be a step toward dealing firmly with the “vaccine hesitancy” rife in Pakistan (although the people in that country own a lot of guns).
(For a video, from 2020, on the torturous enforcement of Pakistan’s mask mandate, scroll down.)
Pakistan officials consider a new way to boost polio vaccination: prison
October 1, 2023
KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — Authorities in one Pakistan province are turning to a controversial new tactic in the decades-long initiative to wipe out polio: prison.
Last month, the government in Sindh introduced a bill that would imprison parents for up to one month if they fail to get their children immunized against polio or eight other common diseases.
Experts at the World Health Organization and elsewhere worry the unusual strategy could further undermine trust in the polio vaccines, particularly in a country where many believe false conspiracies about them and where dozens of vaccinators have been shot and killed.
Adding to the problems faced by experts trying to persuade people of the vaccines’ safety: The oral vaccines themselves now cause most polio cases worldwide.
WHO’s polio director in the Eastern Mediterranean warned the new law could backfire.
“Coercion is counterproductive,” said Dr. Hamid Jafari.
He said health workers have typically succeeded in raising immunization rates in vaccine-hesitant areas by figuring out the reasons for people’s refusal and addressing those concerns, like bringing in a trusted political or religious leader to talk with people.
“My own sense is that Pakistan wants to have this legislation in their back pocket in case they need it,” Jafari said. “I would be surprised if there’s a willingness to actually enforce these coercive measures.”
https://apnews.com/article/polio-pakistan-vaccine-prison-6fd097356e35defb5c3602ee92e356de
Jail-time could be an eventual solution to the much-studied problem of Pakistani “vaccine-hesitancy”:
COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and attitudes in Pakistan: a cross-sectional phone survey of major urban cities
June 9, 2023
https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-023-15905-3
This has been done before. In the mid-1800s, the UK strengthened their enforcement for parents who didn't give their children a smallpox vaccine (or didn't take one themselves). It cost 20 shillings to get out of vaccination so the rich were able to pay easily but the working poor couldn't afford it. Many parents went to prison as a result or the poor house which was basically the same. As a result, there was MASSIVE unrest. In the town of Leicester in 1885 - without the internet or phones or any other easy communication devices, over 100,000 people descended on the Town Hall and compulsory vaccination laws were overturned very shortly thereafter. It shows that if only we would unite and stand strong, this would be over in 24 hours' time. Our compliance is the reason we are still doing this crap.
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/victorian-health-reform/
In 1965 in Montreal, I received the oral polio vaccine (OPV) and I came down with a transverse myelitis which had me paralyzed from the waist down at the age of 4. Fortunately I regained my ability to walk over the next year. Hundreds of children in Canada became sick from that Sabin vaccine, and it was discontinued in Canada and the US after that year. However they continue to use the OPV in third world countries to this day!