The number of Ontario students with non-medical exemptions for vaccines has risen slightly in recent years, showing provincial immunization campaigns are failing to reach some families.
Non-medical exemptions are much higher in certain parts of the province, which could point to areas where vaccination rates are lower and disease outbreaks are more likely to occur. For instance, about 11 per cent of students in the Elgin St. Thomas Public Health and Oxford County Public Health catchment areas had a non-medical exemption to at least one of the vaccines required for school attendance in Ontario in 2017-18.
Over all, vaccination rates across Ontario are relatively high, but are failing to reach national goals required for herd immunity. For instance, 87.6 per cent of seven-year-olds have up-to-date measles vaccines in Ontario. Nearly 86 per cent of those students are also up-to-date for the whooping-cough vaccine. But those diseases require 95-per-cent coverage for herd immunity.
Any parent who refuses to vaccinate their child should be arrested and charged with child abuse.