Child Protection Centre (BAC) manager Gunita Kovaļevska objects to the idea to ban children who have not undergone mandatory vaccination from schools.
In her interview to TV3 programme 900 seconds, she explained that in this case the child suffers from the decisions of his or her parents. Any restriction imposed on a child because of his or her parents’ actions is unacceptable. “No matter the practices of other countries, I would rather we didn’t do this,” said Kovaļevska.
When asked to comment on a recent statement from the Ombudsman’s Office clarification that the decision to vaccinate a child in so-called anti-vaxxer families may be asked by the doctor to be made by the orphans’ courts, the head of BAC said this is not as simple in practice, because the knowledge that a child is not vaccinated is not enough. Orphan Courts may make decisions on such topics only in situations when a child’s health is in danger, because workers of these courts are not medical specialists, explained Kovaļevska.
“We wondered a lot about this. If there was a situation in which a medical institution or a general practitioner can say what the risks are, it can be said that a threat to a child’s health or life, then one could certainly also go to the Orphan’s Court,” explained the head of BAC. Nevertheless, according to her, a situation when a medical institution or GP goes through a list of patients, finds children who are not vaccinated, and then sends this information to an Orphan’s Court is unacceptable.
In such cases an Orphan’s Court would not be able to research such issues in depth, because the fact that a child is unvaccinated does not mean the child’s health and life is in danger,
unless there is some second opinion that suggests the opposite, explains the head of BAC.
Discussions on how to achieve greater vaccination coverage among children reportedly flared up again in September, with several unvaccinated children contracting diphtheria and one of them dying.
Vaccination for diphtheria is paid for by the state and is available to all residents of all ages.