Irish doctor says anti-vaxxers should have child benefit halved

Dr Ruairi Hanley, a member of The Medical Council and a columnist for the Irish Medical Times, has called for anti-vaxxers to have their child benefit cut by 50 percent.

In an opinion piece for the Irish Medical times titled 'Fighting the anti-vaxxers', Dr Hanley has slammed thousands of parents  who are refusing to let their daughters have the recommended HPV vaccine. The doctor, who previously served as a medical officer with the rank of Captain in the Defence Forces, says the solution to get back to the recommended 80 percent vaccination target is to cut the children's allowance of anti-vaxxers by half. Dr Hanley says that there has been an "ongoing campaign" against the HPV jab, which prevents cervical cancer,

"This scientific breakthrough has the potential to save the lives of hundreds of young women in the decades to come. Regrettably, thanks to the efforts of a minority of campaigners, and the irrational world of the internet, thousands of parents are denying their daughters this cancer-preventing jab."

He goes on to argue that the debate about the safety of the vaccine should never have existed in the first place,

"The trouble is that anti-vaccination campaigners the world over do not think like that. Reason does not impact on them and engagement merely pours petrol on the fires of their obsession, effectively reinforcing their views. All we can do is minimise the impact they have on others by refusing to engage any further. There can be only one way to solve this, one which I will propose yet again. Barring exceptional circumstances, any parent who fails to complete the childhood immunisation schedule loses 50 percent of their children’s allowance payment until the child reaches the age of 18. Overnight, this problem would be solved."

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