Parents in Australia have rushed to get their children vaccinated against their will due to the federal government’s new ‘no jab, no pay’ law, which stops parents receiving Tax Benefit’s if their child remains unvaccinated after January 1st, 2016. The rush on vaccines has caused health departments to become inundated with calls from doctors and nurses who are requesting assistance in dealing with the high demand. Theage.com.au reports: Meanwhile, health departments are sending out increased vaccine supplies, a spokesman for federal Health Minister Sussan Ley confirmed. Statistical data measuring the effect of the ‘no jab, no pay’ policy on immunisation coverage won’t be available until April. “While it is too early to provide meaningful figures, there appears to have been strong interest in the supply of vaccines for children under five years of age,” said NSW Health director of communicable diseases Dr Vicky Sheppeard. Dr Sheppeard said for example there had been an increase in the supply of vaccines given at two, four and six months old to protect against pneumococcal disease from an average of 24,000 doses a month in the preceding months to 29,000 doses in January. Anticipating an increase in immunisations, the federal government made specific vaccines [...]