It started with wondering whether certain schools should be avoided as unvaccinated measles factories. I couldn’t find any statistics on vaccination rates in schools but I found great vaccination rates by postcode [xls file sorry] published by National Health Perfomance Authority [same database only for Internet Explorer victims].
Skipping the statistics for one year olds because the sample sizes are too small, I noticed that only 83% of the two year olds in 2601 [city] (with their educated parents and expensive apartments) are fully jabbed. Meanwhile the clear winner at 97% is 2906 [Conder, Banks, Gordon]. The 2604 [Kingston, Narrabundah] and 2606 [Chifley, O’Malley, Swinger Hill, Phillip, Woden, Lyons] codes also have the honour of coming in below 90% in this age group.
By five years of age, the suburbs with poor numbers are shifted down a few percent, with 2601 coming in at only 71% whereas Tuggeranong area 2904 and 2906 are the only ones remaining above 95%. Actually Tuggeranong generally wins, with the outer Gungahlin area a very close second and the outer suburbs generally beating the overpriced inner ones. (The very expensive very inner suburbs like Red Hill, Turner, etc are pretty good though.)
The area I was planning to move, 2600 [Deakin, Yarralumla] is not great with 90% vaccination at 2 years but by five they drop right down to 83%! I’m scared to send my kids to school with the neighbour kids!
So what’s with the discrepancy? Would anyone actually avoid the lower immunised areas in choosing a place to bring up their kids? And what do you guys in the shame zone have to say for yourselves?
Finally what’s with the weird shift between the way people are immunising their toddlers and their school kids? Do they get lazy and complacent after a couple of years?
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