A majority of 70 per of Canadians say vaccinations against common diseases should be a requirement for children entering school, according to a public opinion survey by Angus Reid. But one in five parents who have children under the age of 12 say immunization should be a parent’s choice, and not mandatory.
This gives pause to professionals like Rebecca Pilla Riddell, a psychologist and associate vice-president of research at York University.
The vulnerable depend on herd immunity
“I think when we’re talking about population health versus an individual’s choice there’s always hard decisions to be made. But with vaccinations I think… there are people that depend on herd immunity to allow us to have safe communities. So, the infants, babies, elderly, people under chemotherapy, all sorts of vulnerable…depend on people being immunized so that we don’t spread diseases.” To achieve herd immunity against a disease, over 90 per cent of the population must be vaccinated.
Immunization is not mandatory in Canada. But two provinces, Ontario and New Brunswick, require proof of vaccination for children and adolescents going to school. However, they can seek exemptions for medical or ideological reasons.
Polio struck Canadian children in the 1950s before a vaccine was developed. (CBC archives)
Psychologist hopes science will prevail
One-quarter of Canadians say they are concerned about the risk of side effects and 68 per cent do not worry about that. Science has overwhelmingly shown vaccines to be safe and effective in preventing diseases. Still, five per cent of respondents refuse to vaccinate their children.
Pillai Riddell hope that science will change their minds. She gives the example of a study of over a million cases that proved the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine to be safe.
“You keep hoping that these types of very large-scale work will convince more and more people of the importance of vaccination and that the side effects are very minimal and serious side effects are extremely rare.”
‘Vaccination hesitancy’ named a top ten world health threat
The United Nations’ World Health Organization has declared “vaccination hesitancy” to be one of the top 10 health threats in the world.
There is currently an outbreak of measles in the western city of Vancouver, and some deadly outbreaks in the Philippines and other parts of the world.
This study showed majority opinions in favour mandatory vaccination were the same across political party allegiances and Pillai Riddell hopes that propels governments toward making immunization mandatory.
Prof. Rebecca Pillai Riddell discusses Canadian attitudes about vaccination and mandatory immunization.
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