A CONFRONTING image circulating on social media, connecting drug-use to vaccination, has mortified Sunshine Coast doctors.
The image, which came from an unknown source, flies in the face of experts driving a campaign to boost vaccination rates across the Coast.
The Sunshine Coast has the lowest vaccination rate in the state and the third lowest in Australia, with only 87% of five-year-olds fully immunised.
An alarmingly low 64% of five-year-olds in the 4552 region – which takes in Maleny, Conondale, Witta, and Crystal Waters – are fully immunised.
The image, which depicts a drug addict slumped in a corner with the text “their first injection was a vaccination: protect your children from vaccinations”, has gone viral on social media and has recently found its way to Coast news feeds.
Sunshine Coast Local Medical Association president Dr Di Minuskin described the image as “outrageously incorrect” and reiterated that vaccinations remained a safe and effective measure of protecting children and the larger community.
“I am horrified that this type of message should gain any validity,” Dr Minuskin said.
“If anyone receives this image via social media I would recommend they swiftly assign it to the trash box where it belongs.
“Not only is the information outrageously incorrect, it is irresponsible to be creating unwarranted fear about such an important issue.”
The image, which is not new, but has recently gone viral across the Coast, comes just weeks after anti-vaccination campaigner Meryl Dorey was allowed to deliver a 90-minute address at the Sunshine Coast Healthy Lifestyle Expo.
Ms Dorey declined to comment about the image.
Sunshine Coast Public Health director Andrew Langley said while vaccination rates had been on an upward trend since the 1990s, the current level in the region should be higher.
Source: The Chronicle