Mendoza govt reports 10 families for not vaccinating their kids

Mendoza’s health ministry has filed legal complaints against 10 families for refusing to vaccinate their children. The legal action is unprecedented in Argentina, where the law requires all citizens to receive certain vaccines, privileging public health over personal preference. Argentina is currently facing a steep drop in child vaccination, leading to a rise in cases of previously controlled infectious diseases like measles and whooping cough. Seven babies and toddlers have died from whooping cough in 2025. None had been vaccinated, although four of them had reached the age at which they would usually get the shot. Reported cases of whooping cough in the first 10 months of 2025 tripled the figure for the whole of 2024. The provincial health ministry said that the complaints were just “the first ten,” suggesting that more will follow. In Argentina, vaccinating children and teenagers is mandatory. The policy is enforced by requiring parents to have their children vaccinated in order to enroll them in primary school. This is usually when authorities check whether children are missing any of the required jabs. In August, Mendoza issued regulations for taking legal action against families who have not vaccinated their children. Families have 30 days to get their children vaccinated after formally refusing vaccines within the provincial school vaccination program. If they fail to comply, a civil complaint will be filed against them. According to local news outlet El Sol, those families have to attend a hearing where healthcare staff inform them of the risks of not following the required vaccination scheme. They can also be fined between AR$84,000 and AR$336,000 (US$57-230), made to do community service, or even arrested. “The goal is clear: to make children get vaccinated,” said Iris Aguilar, head of the ministry’s immunizations department, regarding the complaints. “We do not seek to punish, but rather to protect children.” Aguilar said that, although vaccination rates in schoolchildren remain at an “acceptable” level of over 80%, it should be above 95% “to stop diseases that had been eliminated or controlled thanks to vaccines from reappearing.” The national and provincial governments recently issued a statement defending the importance and safety of vaccines after Marilú Quiróz, a national deputy from the right-wing PRO party, led an anti-vaccination conference in Congress. During the event, a man claimed he had been “magnetized” by Covid-19 vaccines. Video footage of the event shows him placing metal objects on his bare chest as a speaker claims that they are stuck there. “Vaccines are safe and save lives,” the statement said, adding that mandatory vaccines in Argentina “have decades of safe usage, are backed by solid scientific evidence, and their efficacy to prevent serious diseases and death of millions of people has been proven.”