Daycares should be allowed to reject unvaccinated children in light of the drop in vaccination rates in the Netherlands, according to a proposed bill from the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). But the bill is unlikely to pass, as it struggles to gain support from a majority of the House of Representatives.
Earlier this week, the VVD stated that it intends to propose measures to address the declining rates of vaccination in the Netherlands. The party wants unvaccinated children to be rejected from daycares if the vaccination rate in the country is too low. For now, the party considers a critical low rate to be under 90%, according to RTL nieuws. Numerous regions of the country already fall under this percentage.
Combating unnecessary deaths
Last year, the Dutch Public Health Institute (RIVM) said it was concerned about the drop in children’s participation in the National Vaccination Program. The VVD’s proposal comes almost a month after the RIVM raised awareness for an increase in serious cases of whooping cough in babies, which caused the death of 4 infants.
“That is four children who die unnecessarily from a disease for which we have a vaccination; unnecessary, because we have been vaccinating children since 1957 through the National Vaccination Program,” said Wieke Paulusma, from the social liberal party (D66), during a House of Representatives meeting on Tuesday.
Back in 2018, D66 formulated a proposal that gave the option for childcare centres to reject unvaccinated children. The bill was ultimately rejected in the Senate in 2022, following numerous discussions of its impact within the context of COVID-19 vaccination rules.
The VVD’s proposed measures are not meant to take away a choice, but to impose consequences, said VVD’s Sophie Hermans on the news show Goedemorgen Nederland. “Because your choice has effects on the freedom, on the safety, on the health of others,” she further elaborated, “You vaccinate your child not only for his own health but also for that of other children in the Netherlands.”
The sentiment is echoed by the Dutch Association of Parents in Childcare, BOinK. “The presence of many unvaccinated children means an additional risk, which is why childcare must have the option to refuse unvaccinated children to the daycare for the safety of all children,” they stated in a press release.
However, obtaining support for the bill from a majority of the House of Representatives is unlikely, according to De Telegraaf. State Secretary for Health, Maarten van Ooijen (CU), believes restricting access to daycares to be counterproductive to the issue at hand, according to NOS.
Misinformation & declined trust
Causes of drops in vaccination rates can vary. “Reasons for this can be religious, scepticism towards vaccines or tiredness towards vaccines for example,” a spokesperson from the public health institute (GGD) in Groningen told The Northern Times. “I think the root of the problem is actually that trust has declined, mainly due to disinformation, simply due to lies, especially on social media,” said Maarten van Ooijen, in a House of Representatives meeting this week.
In the same meeting, Van Ooijen stated that increasing accessibility to vaccines as well as information is an appropriate countermeasure against the lower vaccination rates. Moreover, the State secretary highlighted a need to strengthen communication where misinformation is prevalent, namely social media platforms.
Despite the decline, data on vaccination rates must be evaluated within the context of changes in privacy rules. Since 2022, consent was required for data of a vaccinated person to be shared with the Dutch Public Health Institute (RIVM). This means that published “rates may be a little distorted,” explains Thijs Damstra, senior spokesperson for Safety Region Friesland (Veiligheidsregio Fryslân).
Spokespeople for the GGDs of the Northern regions of Groningen, Drenthe, and Friesland, encouraged those with doubts regarding the effects of vaccines to contact their local health institutes.
The Northern Times reached out to the Dutch Public Health Institute (RIVM) and State Secretary van Ooijen for comment but was yet to receive a response at the time of publication.
