Good morning.  A powerful pro-vaccination sign has struck a chord with mothers around the world.
Sunni Mariah was at her doctor's office
in Colorado in the US when she saw the
sign and posted a photo of it onto Facebook.
Within a few days the post was
shared more than 160,000 times 
and sent anti-vaxxers into a fury.
Now it was penned by Australian intensive care specialist Dr Rachel Heap two years ago, and the sign reads "When your daughter
gets rubella when pregnant how are you
going to explain that you chose to leave
her at risk? What do you tell your son
when he breaks the news to you that he
can't have kids thanks to mumps that
he got as a teenager?" And Dr Rachel Heap
joins us now from the New South Wales
North Coast. Good morning to you Rachel.
Thanks so much for being with us. This
must have come as a huge shock that
something that you wrote two years ago
could all of a sudden now go viral.
Absolutely. I wrote it two years ago. 
I never expected that now I'd be
standing talking to you on breakfast
television.
And why did you write it? 
Why were you inspired to do this?
I was actually tired and emotional and frustrated.
I'd come off a pretty rough run at work
looking after people
suffering from stuff that should have
been avoidable and when I was listening
to the conversations we were having
about vaccination it seemed that
something was missing and that was the
voices of the kids. Those kids have no
choice and if children are left
vulnerable to preventable disease and
they contract those diseases, then
the impact, the injury from those
diseases that can last, that can have a
lifelong impact on them, and it seemed
that somebody needed to speak up for them.
Doctor we know that vaccines are the safest and most effective way to protect
from disease. Why is it do you think that
some parents still go down the path of
not vaccinating their children?
Well in our region particularly, which I love, I love my home region, but the vaccination rates
around here are lower than that in
South Sudan which is a statistic that's pretty horrific.
But there's a cultural dialogue, a narrative,
a conversation that goes around that
saying that if it's natural it must be
good, and there's a concern or a worry
about mainstream preventative medicine.
Well I'd say that I've seen tetanus and
it is completely natural and there is
nothing good about that.
What is your message to parents that choose not to vaccinate their kids
given what you've seen?
I'd say to anybody out there who's
got questions or concerns about vaccines
or questions about vaccine preventable diseases, please talk to the experts about that.
Make an appointment with your GP. 
Talk to your practice nurse.
There is so much misinformation on the internet. If you're going to look online maybe look at Google Scholar
and not Google. And if you type in the
word "immunisation" rather than "vaccination"
then you might be more
likely to find a credible source.
Because these are parents that don't
not love their kids, they want what is best for their kids.
Absolutely. Parents only want what is best for their kids
and they think they're making informed decisions . 
We understand that.
But you can only make an informed decision if it's based on good data, on good information.
And there's so much misinformation and lies out there
that we're just trying to help people
understand what the truth is.
And it can be confusing. Sometimes it is difficult to know what is credible and what isn't.
But a good idea to put in that Google
Scholar. Dr Rachel Heap thank you so
much for joining us. We really appreciate it.
Thanks Rachel.
Thanks very much for your time today.
