PhD Thesis - ResearchSpace@Auckland - The University of Auckland

CHAPTER 4: ‘Something Everybody Did?’
Attitudes and responses to immunisation policy 1941-1962
During the period 1941-62 the immunisation of infants, toddlers and schoolchildren
gradually became an accepted health prevention measure by the majority of New
Zealand parents. The Health Department developed a programme of health education
to inform the public of many health issues, and in particular promote immunisation.
This chapter will consider parental attitudes and responses to immunisation and will
look at how effective the Department’s campaigns were in encouraging acceptance.
Opposition, mainly from the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV),
was at its height up until the mid-1950s when a change in focus removed its presence
from the anti-immunisation scene. The role of the BUAV and its impact upon
immunisation and upon both parents and the Health Department will be discussed.
Maori were also the focus of departmental immunisation schemes in the 1940s and
1950s, specifically against typhoid. The growing social awareness by Maori led to
more frequent opposition to these immunisations, whilst the Health Department had to
contend with the legalities of immunising without parental consent. The implications
of this perturbing situation will be analysed during the chapter.
Consent
In order for an immunisation to be administered to an infant or a child, consent, either
written or verbal, had to be given by a parent or legal guardian. 1 In school-based
campaigns, such as those for BCG, written consent was required, whilst a verbal
agreement was often the method used when a mother brought her infant to the doctor
for his or her scheduled immunisations.
Consent issues had been raised by parents during the diphtheria immunisation
campaign of the 1940s and 50s. One parent protested vociferously to the Director-
General of Health when his son was taken from his class and given a diphtheria
1 Consent had to be given under 1908 Infants Amendment Act s.5.
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