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There are rare individuals who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons; they may be allergic to one or more components of the vaccine, or there may be some other reason.
One hears suggestions that some people claim a religious exemption. I find that hard to believe. How could Christianity, Judaism or Islam be against vaccination, which began around 1800, when even the youngest of these (Islam) dates back 1,400 years? Buddhism dates back 2,400 years. Zoroastrianism is nearly twice as old.
But back to our time. Vaccination against many diseases was a routine process often carried out in school by a visiting team. That’s how I was vaccinated. Pupils lined up by class and were done – 10 seconds each! I am not even sure my parents were asked for permission. Today, children must be vaccinated against mumps, measles and rubella ('MMR' vaccine) to attend school. Chicken pox vaccination, while apparently not mandatory, is highly recommended.
Smallpox is no longer required because that disease has been eradicated worldwide. Polio vaccine is no longer given because it, too, has been almost eradicated.
It is hard to understand why such opposition has built up against the COVID-19 vaccine now protecting the great majority of Canadians.
The suggestion that it is somehow unsafe is silly. The approved vaccines passed Stage 3 clinical trials monitoring safety and effectiveness in tens of thousands of volunteers. And then 60 per cent of nine million Israelis were the first group to be vaccinated (using Pfizer product), with only minor side effects. Some 45 per cent of the 330 million Americans are now vaccinated and around 75 per cent of 35 million Canadians.
Lack of safety was never a credible reason.
Providing around 90 per cent protection, the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are among the most effective vaccines ever developed.
So why the hard core of resistance? Part of that must be due to the reluctance of provincial governments to make COVID-19 vaccination mandatory. Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms allows people to refuse medical treatment. However, rejecting vaccination infringes on my right to avoid infection. I have done my best by accepting vaccination, but that still leaves me slightly vulnerable to the disease. For those of us nearing our 80th year, even mild COVID symptoms are unappealing.
For that reason, I and almost 90 per cent of Ontarians want to know who the anti-vaxxers are. Actually, we don’t really care who they are; we just want to avoid contact with them. And this is why the overwhelming majority of Ontarians want a government-issued certificate of vaccination.
But that is not enough. While we would be comforted to know that a restaurant or concert venue screens patrons and staff for vaccination status, there are times when such screening cannot be carried out.
If we are picked up by an ambulance, we are in no position to screen the paramedics, nor the hospital personnel who receive us as patients. This is particularly true of people in poor health – those in long-term care homes. They definitely deserve to know that the staff working with them are vaccinated.
The same must be true of the police. I understand the police union is against forcing members to be vaccinated. When a policeman sticks his head into my car at a RIDE check sniffing for alcohol, can I tell him to back off because I don’t want to risk catching COVID? Think about it. How should an unvaccinated and possibly infected policeman arrest a suspect? Will arrest come with an unexpected dose of COVID virus?
How about teachers facing classrooms packed with our most precious people, our children?
I respect a person’s charter right to refuse to vaccinate. It is indeed their right to do so. But I, too, have rights. It is my right – and yours – to be protected from what could be a deadly infection. If you refuse vaccination, your job prospects should be limited to those which do not involve contact with people.
So listen up, Mr. Ford. We, the people, want mandatory vaccination. And by extension, we want tools to help us avoid people who refuse to be vaccinated.
Peter Bursztyn
Barrie
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