MP's push for childcare to refuse unvaccinated children if vaccination rate drops

The VVD and D66 submitted a bill that would oblige childcare organizations to refuse unvaccinated children if the national vaccination rate drops below 92 percent. The vaccination rate among children in the Netherlands has been falling for years and is currently below 90 percent - the World Health Organization’s lower limit for “herd immunity” against infectious diseases like measles. The parties also want to mandate that childcare workers be vaccinated, RTL Nieuws reports.

Coalition party VVD and opposition party D66 want the bill to protect babies who have not yet been fully vaccinated from getting infected by an unvaccinated child at daycare. “Childcare facilities and parents of children also ask for this,” D66 MP Wieke Paulusma told the broadcaster.

“The vaccination rate has been falling for several years and is now well below 92 percent,” said VVD MP Judith Tielen. This year, the Netherlands already had outbreaks of measles and whooping cough - both covered in the national vaccination program. “Our law stipulates that children who are not vaccinated must be refused entry to childcare. So that all children who come there can be certain that they are protected against very nasty infectious diseases.”

According to Paulusma, there must be consequences for choosing not to vaccinate your child without medical cause. She expects this measure will have a positive effect on the vaccination rate if not refusing means your child can’t go to childcare.

The law will also give parents more certainty, Tielen said. “Parents who take children to daycare can then be sure that there are no pathogens there. That their children are safe from measles, whooping cough, and things like that. “

If this measure gets a majority in parliament, it can take effect in 2026.