New measures tighten rules for immunization disclosure by parents but stop short of mandatory vaccinations
By Michelle Bellefontaine, CBC News
Posted: Nov 07, 2016 4:39 PM MT Last Updated: Nov 07, 2016 5:31 PM MT
A new bill aims to improve vaccination rates in school children by tightening the way immunization records are collected and updated.
Alberta parents will be asked to provide immunization records for their children under proposed legislative amendments introduced Monday. But the new measures stop short of mandatory vaccinations.
For decades, legislation has allowed public health officials to tell non-immunized children to stay at home in the event of an outbreak of a communicable disease like measles or whooping cough at their school.
But the process was flawed because authorities didn't have accurate records showing which kids haven't been vaccinated.
Measles outbreak: The loopholes in Canada's vaccination laws
The amendments in Bill 28 aim to change that. Education enrolment records will be cross-referenced with immunization records held by Alberta Health to determine which children have been immunized.
The parents or guardians of children without records will be contacted by public health officials, and informed that unvaccinated students will be required to remain home during outbreaks of certain highly contagious diseases such as measles.
The government hopes the moves will help bring immunization rates to a range of 95 to 98 per cent. In 2015, 87.1 per cent of two-year-old children received their first dose of measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.
The rate of immunization for chicken pox is 86.6 per cent for children of the same age.
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to taco.vidal For This Useful Post:
How will this actually increase vaccinations? It seems like all they are doing is increasing documentation?
Australia has seen a recent increase in vaccinations after a law passed last year which prevents any anti-vaxxers from receiving welfare payments. It turns out people care more about money than their anti-science believes.
__________________
The masses of humanity have always had to surf.
The Following User Says Thank You to FireGilbert For This Useful Post:
Interesting that an NDP government is doing this. Typically the left is as willfully ignorant on heath science as the right is on climate change and evolution.
How will this actually increase vaccinations? It seems like all they are doing is increasing documentation?
Australia has seen a recent increase in vaccinations after a law passed last year which prevents any anti-vaxxers from receiving welfare payments. It turns out people care more about money than their anti-science believes.
I guess the threat of having them have to stay home and take days off from work during outbreaks is an incentive. Let's face it, many people view school as free day care.
They should do what they do in some European countries and just make it illegal to not vaccinate your kids.
__________________
"A pessimist thinks things can't get any worse. An optimist knows they can."
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to FlamesAddiction For This Useful Post:
I think these are fair measures. Families should always have the right to choose, and no government should have control over what we put into our bodies.
This at least allows for a path towards denying entry to school, benefits, daycare, etc. The best course is making the costs outweigh the "benefits" of these people's false beliefs.
The Following User Says Thank You to PepsiFree For This Useful Post:
I think these are fair measures. Families should always have the right to choose, and no government should have control over what we put into our bodies..
I disagree now. Government's biggest role should be preventing damage to society by stupid people. Families should have the right to send their children to school and not have to fear ####ing measles because some idiot didn't get their vaccines because some playboy model said so.
There's legitimate reasons why certain people can not get vaccinated, vaccines aren't 100% effective. It's imperative that as many people as possible do get vaccinated because of this. Until you can find a way to prevent preventable diseases from transferring, it's not just their body they're making the choice for...Not to mention it's the rest of society paying for these idiots when they go to the hospital.
I think parents should have a choice. Either get your eligible kids vaccinated or get them taken away. That's it.
Last edited by Oling_Roachinen; 11-08-2016 at 09:07 AM.
Which is why denial of public education and healthcare is an easy solution.
Government control over what goes into/what we do with our bodies is a historically horrible thing. I think it's perfectly fine to restrict government provided services though.
The Following User Says Thank You to PepsiFree For This Useful Post:
Alberta introduces new bill to increase vaccination rates for children
