When Are Mandatory Vaccinations Not Mandatory?

When large loopholes are allowed.

As I wrote recently, almost all mandatory vaccine orders allow for both medical and religious exemptions. The only problem is that no religions forbid vaccinations, and the grounds for medical exemptions are very limited. Despite the latter, unscrupulous doctors in the United States, as I wrote, are issuing baseless notes. 

Will the same happen in Canada? In the earlier post, I expressed the concern that some physicians might issue exemptions for those with needle phobias. However, the signs thus far suggest a cautious optimism that won't happen.

It turns out the list of conditions valid for a medical exemption from vaccines in Canada is extremely limited, and even narrower than for masks. The only valid exemptions are for people allergic to ingredients in the vaccine, or those who experienced severe allergic reactions or heart inflammation after their first dose.

This has implications for health-care providers and citizens nationwide, as provinces including Quebec and B.C. introduce or plan to introduce vaccine passports, and organizations such as the Toronto Police Service and Air Canada announce mandatory policies for employees.

“The whole discussion of medical exemptions to COVID vaccine is a pretty straightforward one because the bottom line is there aren’t many,” said Dr. Barry Pakes, a physician and program director of the Public Health and Preventive Medicine residency program at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

“And we’re encouraging physicians to not give medical exemptions for invalid reasons, and despite the fact that their patients are pleading with them … it is really important to just help them understand that those aren’t genuine reasons not to get the vaccine,” he added.

There will, of course, always be those who try to pressure their doctor or offer cash inducements. Pakes says,

“The real challenge is when you have some doctors writing letters of exemption charging $50, $100, whatever they might do. And that undermines the stand of the 99 per cent of doctors or health-care practitioners who are not doing that.”

Regulatory bodies have high expectations of their doctors: 

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario’s website says health-care providers must be “comprehensive, accurate and objective” when providing notes, and if a patient does not have a valid reason for a medical exemption, they must still write a note and “state the accurate clinical information (e.g., patient doesn’t have any medical conditions/risks to their health).”

Pakes said mental health challenges such as anxiety or needle phobia are a worthy consideration but “not a reason to get a medical exemption,” noting there are clinics that cater to people with needle phobia.

The list of valid exemptions is short (acute illness -wait until it resolves, bleeding disorders - wait until under control, and myocarditis or pericarditis). Essentially, very, very few qualify for an exemption.

Today's conditions require decisive action for the public good. Let's hope that all medical professionals are onboard with that imperative.

 

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The Fairy Tale Factory

 

As children, we very much enjoyed fairy tales. Stories filled with wolves and innocent damsels, children led astray by heartless witches, princes and plotters, giants and giant-slayers, all combined to fill us with both fear and ultimately hope, as good prevailed over evil and the world was once more set aright.

It occurs to me that the summer of 2021 sees us in the midst of a fairy tale, only this one is entitled the federal election of 2021.

The identities of the heroes and villains depend largely upon where you are on the political spectrum. If a Liberal and swayed by manipulated media, you will see Erin O'Toole as the big bad wolf huffing and puffing at the house built by public healthcare, to name but one of his 'targets'. And while that wolf promises a tax credit for child-care, the Liberals are signing deals to bring about $10-a-day daycare, within five years. Writ large: Justin as middle-class hero.

If you are a Conservative, Mr. Trudeau and his gang are wanton spendthrifts heedlessly saddling Canadians and their descendants with unsustainable debt that ultimately spells ruin for old age security and health care, to name but two. The hero of this narrative? Erin O'Toole, who promises to balance the budget over a 10-year period and not raise taxes. Indeed, all the pressing problems of today, ranging from the opioid crisis to the cost of housing, will be met with swift and decisive action.

If you veer to the left, Jagmeet Singh is your man as he battles the neoliberal forces within our midst. One of his promises entails ending all subsidies for fossil fuels. Other goodies include universal prescription drug coverage, dental care and up to $5000 for families to cover their rent. Clearly he is the hero of the tale if exploitative and extractive capitalism, inadequate or unaffordable housing and runaway climate change rattle and rankle you.

We all know that fairy tales are unreal, and those who treat campaign promises as anything other than thinly-disguised fiction are either being naïve or have their ideological blinders firmly in place. One needs to take but a quick look at one aspect of the campaign to see the fictions being perpetuated.

Taxation. We have gone through an extremely difficult time this past year-and-a-half that has required extraordinary expenditures. Few would argue that they were unnecessary. The deficit has grown tremendously, but that isn't a part of the parties' narratives, for the most part.

Mr. Trudeau promises to hike taxes on the big banks and insurance companies, raising by three percentage points (from 15% to 18%) on all bank and insurance earnings over $1 billion to "support middle-class Canadians in their goal of home ownership." He has also announced something called the Canada Recovery dividend which, combined with the other measure, is supposed to generate $2.5 billion per year for the next four years. In my view, this timid measure is mere camouflage of neoliberal truths.

The Conservatives, on the other hand, are offering tax breaks and tax credits:

To help ailing retailers, a government led by O'Toole would implement a "GST holiday" — a month-long break on federal sales tax — sometime this fall. All purchases at a retail store would be tax-free for a month.

The Conservative government would scrap the $30-billion Liberal child care program...and instead convert the existing child care expense deduction into a refundable tax credit to cover up to 75 per cent of the cost of child care for lower income families.

Nary a word from either party of a sustained, realistic approach to taxation that would address either new program spending or the bourgeoning debt, but O'Toole has promised balanced budgets within 10 years. The roadmap, however, is non-existent.

Jagmeet Singh's NDP is the only party that seems more forthright about taxation, at least acknowledging the need for more revenue through a number of measures, including a wealth tax of 1% for those worth more than $10 million, raising the marginal tax rate for those making over $210,000, and restoring corporate tax rates to $18 from the 15% it had been reduced to by the Harper government.

Some, of course, might argue that he is playing to his base, but that base is rather large, given that 90% favour a wealth tax. But even here, the tax is a timid, given that a 3% rate would raise much, much more.

To give an order of magnitude of the amount that could be raised, the Parliamentary Budget Office published a report in July, estimating that a one-time wealth tax of three per cent on net wealth of more than $10 million and five per cent on net wealth over $20 million, could raise between $44 billion and $61 billion.

Kim Campbell once famously said that an election is no time to discuss serious issues. Judging by the willing suspension of disbelief  embraced by so many, she may indeed have been right.

Boy, Are These People Ever Dim

My disdain grows deeper daily.

"I'm Done"

                                          

Like many of us, Peter McMartin has had enough. He's had enough with the anti-vaxxers, the anti-maskers, those who place their faith in what they read on the internet rather than science, those who, ultimately, don't give a damn about anyone but themselves. 

If you will indulge me, I shall reproduce much of his denunciation below:

I’m done with those whose fear of vaccinations arises from studies that were long ago peer-disproved and retracted.

I’m done with those whose ignorance of science is so profound and intractable that, rather than heeding the advice of scientists, doctors and virologists, they put their trust in celebrities, politicians and quacks …

I’m done with those who are so mentally lazy that they refuse to trust in anything beyond hearsay, urban legend, apocrypha, conservative wing-nut provocateurs and the whole digital witch-doctor network of chat rooms, Facebook forums and the first hit that pops up on their Google searches that are designed to reaffirm their ignorance rather than challenge it.

I’m done with those who believe we all have our version of reality, because no, we don’t all have our own version of reality. Singular undeniable realities exist. The earth is round. COVID-19 has killed millions. There are no microchips in vaccines. Vaccines are not designed by governments, Bill Gates or the Illuminati …

I’m done with those whose fear of vaccinations is so rigid and unthinking that, as an unintended consequence of their ignorance, they would drag us back into the Third World by helping to resuscitate polio and whooping cough and mumps and measles …

I’m done with any person, government or business that would coddle anti-vaxxers, or who, like desperate parents trying to entice a spoiled child to eat his vegetables, would offer them tax breaks, lottery tickets or beer as rewards for getting vaccinated.

I’m done with anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers who, while literally weaponizing themselves by refusing to get vaccinated and putting other lives in danger as surely as if they were carrying a loaded gun, see themselves as brave freedom fighters protecting their constitutional freedoms, not because they believe in equality, but because they believe exactly the opposite, that their rights are preeminent over all others.

I’m done with those who complain about wearing masks, as if having to wear a piece of fabric designed to stop the inhalation of a deadly virus was akin to torture. 

I’m done with those who, after a visit to the intensive care unit and death’s door, experience their moment of revelation that, yes, they are so sorry that they didn’t get vaccinated because — with the usual egocentricity and selfishness that characterizes anti-vaxxer sentiment — they could have died rather than, you know, the untold number of people their stupidity put at risk.

Other than those with legitimate health concerns or compromised immune systems, I’m done with trying to understand, accommodate or politely tolerate anti-vaxxers, or those who are just too stupid, tuned out or unconcerned with the health and safety of others to get vaccinated.

My late father-in-law had a succinct way of dismissing things that to him were patently absurd. I leave you with his words:

"I don't have time for such foolishness." 

In that, he is far from alone.

For People Who Aren't Sheeple...

 

… they seem strangely attracted to unconventional 'cures' for Covid, including an animal dewormer called ivermectin.

UPDATED: On Mandatory Vaccines

Now that the City of Toronto has mandated vaccinations for all 37,000 of its employees, with limited exemptions, and the Toronto Transit Commission following suit, now seems to be a good time to explore what those exemptions might be.

The city will possibly allow religious exemptions. The only problem with that is, as far as I have been able to ascertain, no legitimate, established religions forbid vaccinations. Not Dutch Reformed. Not Jehovahs's Witnesses. Not Islam. Not Judiasm. End of story.

Unfortunately, so-called medical exemptions are a different story, judging by the American experience. Jeva Lange writes:

Medical exemptions have increasingly become the à la mode way for anti-vaxxers to deflect judgment and excuse themselves from mandatory vaccination requirements — even when doctors say there is almost never a well-founded reason to not get the safe and effective shot.

Art Krieg, an expert in immune disorders, was recently asked by Bloomberg if he could think of any health conditions that would disqualify someone from the COVID-19 shot: "Absolutely not," was his answer. "[T]here is no health condition where you should not get the vaccine." William "Andy" Nish, an allergy and immunology specialist, concurred: "[T]he risk of getting COVID-19 is so much higher and so much worse than the risks of getting the vaccine that it's just not even debatable," he told The American Journal of Managed Care. "It's just something that people need to do." 

One notable exception would be people who had a severe allergic reaction to the first shot — which, of course, would require them to have gotten the initial shot to have discovered. Yet cases of anaphylaxis seem to only occur in about 5 in every million people vaccinated (and those who did have allergic reactions, meanwhile, responded positively to the use of an antihistamine, Bloomberg notes).

Unfortunately, medical fact never gets in the way of  medical enablers.

… that hasn't stopped vaccine skeptics from seeking medical exemption letters — or sham doctors from writing them. "[A]n Oklahoma clinic said on Facebook that if an employer mandates vaccines, they can write a doctor's note exempting you from it if you qualify," reports Oklahoma's 4 News, going on to quote Dr. Dale Bratzler, the University of Oklahoma's Chief COVID-19 officer, who frets about such "exemption vouchers ... that are not based on any science." 

Could such medical chicanery happen in Canada? Of that I have no doubt. In fact, it wouldn't even require an ethically-challenged medical practitioner to issue such an exemption. What if a person went to her or his doctor claiming that needles set off panic attacks owing to a traumatic experience? Would that not qualify for a medical exemption? 

No one, of course, can compel people to submit to the needle. But their unwillingness to protect themselves and society at large from this deadly pandemic surely demands sanctions, right up to and including job dismissal if alternatives to working alongside of others cannot be found.

An abrogation of human rights? I don't think so, especially given their apparent disdain for the health and well-being of those around them.

UPDATE: There is an excellent article by an infectious disease physician in the L.A Times who has witnessed with a growing weariness far too many unvaccinated people die. Here are her concluding words:

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, has mutated countless times during this pandemic, adapting to survive. Stacked up against a human race that has resisted change every step of the way — including wearing masks, social distancing, quarantining and now refusing lifesaving vaccines — it is easy to see who will win this war if human behavior fails to change quickly.

The most effective thing you can do to protect yourself, your loved ones and the world is to GET VACCINATED.

And it will work.

 

 

UPDATED: Meanwhile, In Ontario, In Search Of A Useful Idiot

The PC government of Doug Ford has an interesting fund-raising scam scheme. It consists of sending an 'invoice' to people:

Some Ontario residents have received mail correspondence asking them to donate to the PC’s election campaign, however, the letters have been designed to appear as invoices.

Kingston resident Greg Gies received one such letter, instructing him that he owed $800 to the party.

“Just above the address box window, in red letters, it says ‘Important Invoice Enclosed,’ right under the Ontario PC identification on the upper left-hand side,” Gies told CTV News Toronto on Wednesday.

The envelope included the fake invoice, alongside a letter written by Ontario Fund chair Tony Miele, stating that the PCs are readying their "war chest" to continue the good work and the good fight and claiming that's why invoices have been sent out.

“[The body of the letter] mentions the word ‘invoice’ three times,” Gies said.

Gies said that, while he used to donate to the PCs, he hasn’t in nearly a decade, but assumes that his past donations are why he received the fake invoice.

“My first reaction was that it looked a lot like Trump's fundraising letters that we see going around on social media,” he said. 

CTV's Colin D'Mello spoke to a woman who received this shameful mailing:

So far, no one in the Tory braintrust has addressed this scandal, but no doubt, after they put on their collective thinking caps, they will blame it on a 'rogue employee' or volunteer, despite the fact that it has the imprimatur of  Tony Miele, Ontario Fund chair.

But then, their ilk always finds some "useful idiot" to blame, don't they?

UPDATE: I'm glad that's all cleared up. A 'third-party service provider' did it. From Sean O'Shea:

EXCLUSIVE Hallway interview with Chair of the Ontario PC Fund, Tony Miele. We staked out for 2.5 hours. Who approved the fake invoice marketing scheme? What misunderstanding? Who is losing their job? Here’s the raw interview.