Jerusalem – Following a major measles outbreak across Israel, in which more than 1,800 patients were diagnosed with the disease, and an 18-month-old baby died, a bill was approved on Sunday by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation to impose sanctions against parents of unvaccinated children.
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Sanctions will include an NIS 2,000 fine as well as the Ministry of Health being able to remove non-vaccinated children from educational institutions when there are concerns of an outbreak.
According to the “Immunization Law,” proposed by MK Yoel Hasson (Labor) and Shuli Mualem-Refaeli (Jewish Home), with the backing of The Israeli Medical Association and the Association of Pediatricians, the Ministry of Health will be required to monitor children who have not been vaccinated, to send a warning in writing to their parents, and if the warning does not help, the parents will be invited to a special information meeting.
A parent who ignores this will be exposed to an economic sanction in the form of revoking an income tax credit point of up to NIS 2,000.
In addition, the proposal allows the Ministry of Health to remove non-vaccinated children from educational institutions when there is a fear of an outbreak.
“We welcome the decision of the ministerial committee to heal this sick system,” Hasson said in a statement, “and now it will be possible to implement a national vaccination policy that defines principles and goals, which systematically addresses the refusal of vaccinations, and which balances the preservation of public health with freedom.
“Long term this will preserve the health of our children,” he added.
Mualem-Rafaeli said “the decision of the ministerial committee to approve the law is a correct and appropriate step in view of the spread of the measles epidemic.”
Health Committee member MK Merav Ben-Ari (Kulanu) explained that the bill would allow in the case “of an outbreak of a disease against which a routine vaccination is given, an educational institution will prevent entry into the institution of any child, teacher or other person who is not immune to the disease.
“In the event that there is a medical impediment to the receipt of a vaccination,” she continued, “the institution may accept the child with the presentation of a certificate from an expert physician regarding the vaccination that the child did not receive unless the Director of the Ministry is instructed to act otherwise.”
The infant’s death earlier this month was the first recorded death from measles in Israel in 15 years. The epicenter of the epidemic is in the ultra-Orthodox communities in Jerusalem, where opposition to vaccination on religious grounds is common. The northern town of Safed, which also has a large Haredi population, is in second place.
Other cases have been found in Petah Tikva, Tel Aviv, Acre, and Ramle.
Some ultra-orthodox rabbis have come out in support of vaccination and campaigns have been launched in haredi neighborhoods with posters in Hebrew and Yiddish calling on parents to vaccinate their children.
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kes total sense, censidering the large cost to the government to hospitalize and care for needlessly sick kids.
. . . and then there’s that death.
Israeli bureaucrats!
The child that died belonged to an anti-zionist family that didn’t take Israeli benefits and therefor refused to go to a clinic and have themselves or their child vaccinated. None of the measures mentioned in this article would have affected them one way or the other.