Parents oppose ‘intrusive’ vaccines - Toronto Paper continues lying to parents about vaccination

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My comment on the article below - doubt it will get published, but you never know :-)Is Dr Finkelstein truly that ignorant of the laws of Canada or has the Toronto Star misquoted him? Vaccination is not compulsory in Canada and he should know that. Thankfully, Canadians do have the right to choose whether or not they want to be vaccinated or have vaccines administered to their children. It is time for your paper to correct this gross misrepresentation of the law.As for herd immunity - that may be the goal of Toronto Public Health but it is an impossible goal. Let's be clear. No vaccine can convey immunity. To be immune means that you will never again be susceptible to an illness. Vaccines require constant booster doses (e.g.. the whooping cough vaccine wears off in 3 years) and even then, a certain percentage (as high as 100% for the flu vaccine in children under 2) will still not be protected despite being recently vaccinated. Any vaccinated person can still get the disease they were vaccinated against - and vaccinated people can still transmit the disease to others - even if they don't develop symptoms themselves. Herd immunity is wishful thinking on the part of the medical community - it is not reality and it certainly is not science.Parents need the freedom to make informed choices and the unbiased information to do so. It's time the media and the government empowered parents rather than bullying them or lying to them.Meryl DoreyAustralian Vaccination Network, Inc.www.avn.org.auInvestigate before you vaccinateCity’s public health unit urges expanding immunization list required to attend school20 Jan 2012Toronto StarBRENDAN KENNEDY STAFF REPORTERhttp://www.thestar.com/news/article/1118567--toronto-seeks-more-mandatory-vaccinations?bn=1#articleToronto’s public health unit wants the province to consider expanding the list of mandatory vaccinations for Ontario’s schoolchildren.The report — to be tabled Friday at the city’s Board of Health meeting — calls on the health ministry to consider updating the immunizations required for school attendance to include more publicly funded vaccines.Although opposition to vaccines appears to be growing among some parents, the school-mandated program has been so successful — achieving almost total compliance — that the public health unit wants more vaccines added to the list.Currently, elementary and high school students must be vaccinated against measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus, diphtheria and polio. Without proof of those shots, students can be suspended for up to 20 days, unless they provide a notarized “statement of conscience or religion” to the public health unit. The threat of suspension, coupled with sending reminder notices home, leads to nearly 100 per cent immunization coverage for the six listed diseases. Less than two per cent of parents choose to exempt their children. But the law requiring schoolchildren to be immunized was written 22 years ago and has not been updated to reflect additions to the province’s publicly funded immunization schedule, which now includes vaccines against chickenpox, meningitis, whooping cough, rotavirus, invasive pneumococcal disease, hepatitis B, and human papilloma virus for girls.“So we’re calling on the ministry to take a look at what additional vaccines there is good evidence to add to the mandatory program,” said Dr. Finkelstein, the city’s associate medical officer of health. The recommendation stems from a previous Toronto Public Health report called The Unequal City, which found that children living in lower-income neighbourhoods were more likely to have incomplete immunization records at the start of the school year. However, with the threat of suspension, immunization rates levelled across income disparities. In fact, by the end of the school year, immunization rates were slightly lower in the highest-income parts of the city, which had higher exemption rates. This is the part of the program most important to Councillor Filion, chair of the health board, and why he supports the recommendation. “It helps to level the playing field,” Filion said. Any decision is still far off, but expanding the mandatory list might upset parents who feel it should be up to them, not public health officials, to decide what shots their kids get.Oakville mother Klein, who has a 14year-old daughter, said she opposes more mandatory vaccinations.“I just think we should have the right to choose,” Klein said, adding “she didn’t think twice” about getting her daughter vaccinated when she was an infant, but has since opted out of the voluntary HPV and meningitis vaccines out of concern for side effects. “You’re putting a needle into your kid because the school is telling you you have to . . . that’s a bit intrusive.”As far as Toronto Public Health is concerned, the issue is clear: the goal of any immunization program is to achieve “herd immunity,” a level of protection against disease that prevents it from circulating within a population. The best way to achieve that, according to their stats, is to make it mandatory throughout the school system.For Dr. Astrid Guttman, a pediatrician at Sick Kids Hospital, the success of the schoolmandated program is actually symptomatic of a larger illness: there is no reliable immunization tracking system outside of schools.“Currently, (the school system) is the only point in time where public health gets any vaccination data,” said Guttman. Meryl Dorey,SpokespersonThe Australian Vaccination Network, Inc.Investigate before you vaccinateEditor,Living Wisdom MagazineFamily, Health, EnvironmentPO Box 177BANGALOW NSW 2479AUSTRALIAhttp://www.avn.org.auhttp://www.living-wisdom.comPhone: 02 6687 1699 FAX 02 6687 2032skype: ivmmagFreedom is not merely the opportunity to do as one pleases; neither is it merely the opportunity to choose between set alternatives. Freedom is, first of all, the chance to formulate the available choices, to argue over them -- and then, the opportunity to choose. - C. MillsThe authority of any governing institution must stop at its citizen's skin. - Gloria SteinemWe rely on the help and support of our members and subscribers to continue offering our services freely and without prejudice.Please consider helping us by subscribing to Living Wisdom and renewing your membership promptly if you are already an AVN member. Go to http://www.avn.org.au to subscribe or renew.We also sell books, videos and DVDs on vaccination and other health issues. Go to http://shop.avn.org.au/ for more details.PS - all of our subscriptions are currently on sale until December 24th. Our digital (online delivery) subscription is 50% off. Please check out the information at http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs082/1101800214009/archive/1108706073097.html