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Adherence to the childhood vaccination schedule is also on the decline, and whilst the numbers might look OK with more than 90% of children still being immunised, rates have dropped from around 94% to 91% in the last few years. These few percentage points’ difference can make a significant impact on the ability of childhood illnesses such as measles to spread through our communities and whilst the vaccinated retain good protection, those in the pool of the unvaccinated are at risk of life-threatening disease.

Why is it happening? A few factors are at play, amongst them vaccine scepticism, vaccine fatigue and complacency. With the health system of the world’s most powerful nation now under the charge of an individual with many alternative views on health including vaccine scepticism, fuel is provided to the anti-vaccination movement globally. We don’t expect that the US President and his eccentric inner circle will provide any strong leadership on this issue if his Health Secretary, Robert F Kennedy, goes rogue on vaccines. Vaccine fatigue is a new but seemingly quite real phenomenon arising from the vaccine mandates of the COVID era, and refers to those people who are simply “over it” and can’t be bothered going to have more vaccines. There could be elements of denial of vulnerability intermixed with this, and complacency is also a related problem. There could be something in the fact that the parents of 2025 have no lived experience with people around them suffering from vaccine-preventable illnesses that used not to be so rare as they are now.

It is probably not all about vaccination per se. Alternative beliefs seem to be on the rise in a number of domains of healthcare, from fearmongering about statins through to fluoridation of the water. Did you know that in Queensland, where local councils have the final say on whether their locals will receive a fluoridated water supply, only 72% of the population can access fluoridated drinking water and it remains a contentious topic amongst local government areas where fluoridation remains the status quo? The broader issue is one of mistrust in authority, science and expertise.

Those of us who believe in science and modern medicine, therefore, cannot ourselves be complacent about this movement that is occurring in our community. We need to use every opportunity we can to remind the community about the major advances that have been made in public health over the past century, and that the world of the past was in many respects a darker and more dangerous place in which to live.