Anti-vaccine Movement and the Need for Solution from Legal Perspective in Malaysia: An Analysis

The Malaysian government has decided that vaccination provided since the early 1950s is free and intended to protect children. However, the responsibility to provide complete immunization for children is still an option given to parents or guardians and is not mandatory. Furthermore, the emergence of anti-vaccine movement was even more bold in spreading misconceptions about vaccination needs to society, especially parents. Therefore, this paper aims to analyze the legal issues arising in the context of childhood vaccines and the existence of anti-vaccine movement in Malaysia. The key points to be addressed are the requirement of childhood vaccinations, the existence of anti-vaccine movement and the control over the dissemination of false information in Malaysia. The research design of pure legal research which is qualitative in nature has been applied. The data sources consist of primary sources which are statutory provisions and court cases as well as secondary sources such as textbooks and journals. The collected data were analyzed by applying the content analysis and the critical analysis methods. The research outcome indicates that specific research on the anti-vaccine movement and its precautionary measures in Malaysian legal context were lacking in the past. Therefore, the authors propose that a detailed study to be carried out by focusing on the solution for legal issues arising from the existence of anti-vaccine movement in Malaysian law perspective. The authors expect that the legal research conducted based on such recommendation will contribute new and significant knowledge, especially relating to legal measure to control the anti-vaccine movement.