Mandatory vaccinations inevitable: KidsRights

Children's rights organization KidsRights wants the government to make the vaccination against measles compulsory. According to chairman and former Children's Ombudsman Marc Dullaert, there is no other solution now that the vaccination rate dropped to 92.9 percent. "Mandatory vaccination seems inevitable", he said to the Volkskrant.

"The Netherlands has now fallen below a vaccination rate of 95 percent four years in a row, the limit that is considered safe by the World Health Council", Dullaert said. According to the World Health Organization, a 95 percent vaccination rate is needed to guarantee herd immunity against measles.

On Tuesday KidsRights is presenting a ranking showing how much 181 countries comply with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. In the area of health, the Netherlands fell 10 spots because children are not well protected against diseases due to the low vaccination rate, the Volkskrant reports.

Dullaert probably shouldn't hold his breath waiting for a mandatory measles vaccination. State Secretary Paul Blokhuis of Public Health previously said that the government is looking into mandatory vaccinations, but only as an extreme measure. He first wants to try and convince anti-vaxxers to vaccinate their children. "Below 90 percent it becomes critical, but that is not yet the case", he said in April. "There is a stabilization in the decline in the number of vaccinations, so I really want to try to convince people first."