A proposed law would obligate nursery schools to report
parents who refuse to seek medical vaccination advice for their children, with
such parents facing fines of up to €2,500.
Health Minister Hermann Gröhe has proposed a law obligating
Kitas (nursery schools) to report parents to health officials if they cannot
prove that they sought vaccination advice for their children, the ministry
announced on Friday. Parents who do not show proof of such medical consultation
face fines of up to €2,500.
Gröhe is pushing to have the proposed law passed by the
Bundestag (German parliament) next Thursday.
“No one can be blasé about the fact that people are still
dying of measles,” Gröhe told Bild.
“Therefore we are now toughening the regulations for
vaccination protection.”
Parents have been required to show proof of going to
vaccination consultation to Kitas since 2015. But currently it is up to nursery
schools to decide whether to report parents to health officials.
The 2015 law also allowed for unvaccinated children to be
temporarily excluded from their daycare or school facilities if there were to
be a measles outbreak.
Gröhe has so far ruled out making vaccinations compulsory
for school children, as Italy recently did.
But the Professional Association of Pediatricians (BVKJ)
advocates for this policy.
“Without vaccinations, no Kita and also no other educational
institutions,” BVKJ President Thomas Fischbach told Catholic news agency KNA
earlier this month.
“We cannot tolerate the vaccination gap that is currently
making measles epidemics possible again.”
A court recently ruled in the favour of vaccinations when a
separated mother and father disagreed about whether to immunize their daughter.
The mother objected, but the court ultimately favoured the father’s side,
arguing that such a decision had significant consequences for the child.
A report released earlier this year found that Germany was
among the worst countries in Europe for vaccinating children.
Source: Thelocal.de
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