70 per cent of Canadians says vaccinations should be school requirement: poll
Credit to Author: Canadian Immigrant| Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2019 20:09:54 +0000
With the increasing number of cases of measles reported recently in Canada, the U.S. and the world, a heated discussion about vaccinations is front and centre on social media and in real life. Many who are unvaccinated are even lining up to get the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) shot to avoid getting the disease. Washington State has declared a state of emergency in light of more than 30 cases of measles.
According to a new public opinion survey from the Angus Reid Institute, the vast majority of Canadians (70 per cent) say vaccinations against common deadly diseases should be a requirement for children entering school.
And while more than four-in-five (83 per cent) say they would vaccinate their children without hesitation, a significant segment — one-in-five who have children under the age of 12 (20 per cent) — say vaccinations should be a parent’s choice, and not mandatory.
In the Vancouver area, a petition has been started to make vaccinations mandatory for kids who attend B.C. public schools. The petition asks Premier John Horgan to amend B.C.’s enrolment policy so that vaccines become mandatory except with medical exemptions.
Meanwhile, around the world there are hundreds of reported cases this year, with reported deaths as well, including more than 50 in Ukraine and more than 130 in the Philippines.
The World Health Organization has now named “vaccine hesitancy” — a new terms to describe parents who have concerns about the safety of vaccines and delay or opt out of vaccines — as one of its top 10 global health threats to address this year — alongside ebola, dengue fever and HIV.
“The measles outbreak in Washington, and also internationally, certainly highlights how serious these diseases can be,” says Dr. Betty Gerstein, a family practitioner and Fellow of the Canadian College of Family Physicians. “They’re not without consequences. It shows that it really is everybody’s responsibility to protect the community, especially those who are most vulnerable, those who can’t be vaccinated.”
With files from Toronto Star