Recent media highlights those younger children do get sick from Coronavirus and that young baby such as the ones reported in this outbreak can go to hospital. 
Even the fit and strong can be seriously affected: https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/300491678/talented-young-powerlifter-and-scientist-dies-with-covid19-in-australia

Human Rights Commission says:
" The right to health is a human right protected under both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which New Zealand is a State party to. In fact under the ICESCR, States must take necessary steps to prevent, treat and control epidemic diseases in order to realise the right to health. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the UN treaty body for the ICESCR, has emphasised that States must ensure public health measures are reasonable and proportionate to protect all human rights."
High Court held that the vaccine is safe and effective, significantly beneficial in preventing COVID19 significantly reduces serious illness, hospitalisation and death and is likely to materially assist in preventing the risk of an outbreak or the spread of COVI D-19.
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I feel strongly that tamariki under the age of having the vaccine available to them and babies are at the mercy of the adults around them to make good decisions including vaccination or exposure to the virus.

We have an official medical exemption process which absolves the people who genuinely cannot take this step of this responsibility and puts them into the category of people we must also protect and take extra caution with.


My ex does not have an exemption or choose to vaccinate. He rejects vaccinating our children by leaning on Anti- Government remarks yet as proven by the courts recently his rights are worth more then my under 5 year year old tamariki and Pepe to be kept safe during an outbreak. 

The rights and protection of tamariki and pepe should be paramount in our society but it is not and this situation illustrates that.

It also shows that when we do our duty in this pandemic, we are not provided the protections for our Whanau we believe we are. 

Everyone has the choice to vaccinate or not except for those under 5 years old currently and the choice of those who choose not to vaccinate should not be able to put the consequences/ risk of their choice onto those who do not have that ability for protection. 

This petition is to call for parents/ people who need it in legislation and through the family courts to have the support and recognition if they choose to not expose tamaiki under 5 to coronavirus risk during an outbreak.

We are not seeking to exclude parents from seeing their children but to have to observe safety restrictions during an outbreak such as those afforded to people under the Covid19 Framework. 

It is wrong that an unvaccinated person cannot get a hair cut yet a parent will be FORCED to expose under 5's to an unvaccinated person without an exemption if they do not choose. 

Parents who do the right things like getting vaccinated during the pandemic need to be supported if they find themselves in the position of contention. Otherwise all messages about the "team of 5 million" mean nothing. 

We need to be able to protect our most vulnerable and have the back up to do so if we choose to.