Social Policy in Ontario

Ontario is ducking the biggest thing that would keep students safe this fall: mandatory vaccination

Posted on August 5, 2021 in Health Debates

Source: TheStar.com — Authors: Star Editorial Board

TheStar.com – Opinion/Editorials
Aug. 4, 2021.   By Star Editorial Board

It’s safe to say that no education minister in the history of Ontario has ever learned more about school ventilation systems than Stephen Lecce.

On Wednesday the minister spoke in great detail about all the money that’s being spent to ensure the highest quality filters are used in mechanical ventilation systems and stand-alone HEPA units are in every classroom that needs one.

He spoke of MERV 13 filters, how often they need to be changed, recalibrating HVAC systems, fresh air intake rules and how many hours ventilation systems need to operate before schools even open their doors in the morning.

It was exhaustive. Lecce clearly wants everyone to feel comforted that $600 million has been dedicated to “optimize air quality in schools” to “keep kids safe” as they return to full-day in-person learning this fall.

But for all his talk about ventilation systems, the Ford government has missed the biggest thing that would keep kids safe — requiring COVID vaccinations.

The government refuses even to consider it, even though Ontario has no trouble requiring that students be vaccinated for all manner of other diseases that are far less threatening than COVID-19 is right now.

And, quite predictably, teacher unions and opposition parties are jumping up and down to denounce the government’s back-to-school plans as “incomplete and inadequate” without themselves calling for the one thing that would all but guarantee school safety: mandatory vaccinations for staff and eligible students.

Instead, there’s much quibbling over whether the government’s funding is actually sufficient to improve ventilation in thousands of schools across the province.

There’s debate over how many students should be crammed into a classroom, which is a longstanding issue. And concerns over whether choir classes should be allowed to resume indoors and teachers will feel safe supervising a basketball game with players unmasked.

Most of this would be irrelevant if everyone who can be vaccinated is vaccinated.

The few who can’t accept vaccines for medical reasons, or have genuine reasons of conscience to refuse them, should be accommodated. Everyone else should be required to get a COVID vaccine just as students have long been required to be immunized against measles and mumps to attend school.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath has gone so far as to say the COVID shot “should be considered for the existing vaccines list for students” to attend school.

Ontario Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca has called for mandatory vaccination for “any front-line worker in health care or education.”

Neither goes far enough, fast enough to ensure a successful return to school this fall amid a potential fourth wave. But they are both light years ahead of Premier Doug Ford and his Progressive Conservatives.

When asked about it on Wednesday, Lecce would not, or could not, provide a rationale for why the government is not requiring COVID vaccinations to attend school.

“We will not mandate a vaccine requirement for schools and for staff at this point,” Lecce said.

He was asked a second time. “We’re not going to do that,” he replied.

That’s the equivalent of a parent trying to dodge a child’s “why” question with a “because I said so.”

It doesn’t work for parents. It’s doesn’t work for the government. And it won’t keep kids as safe as they could and should be when they return to their classrooms, their sports and extracurriculars and their friends in school yards and lunchrooms in September.

If vaccines were mandatory all the money, not to mention all the time and energy, that’s being dedicated to ventilation systems could be put into what really matters: educating students and giving those who fell behind with online learning the help they need to catch up.

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2021/08/04/ontario-is-ducking-the-biggest-thing-that-would-keep-students-safe-this-fall-mandatory-vaccination.html?source=newsletter&utm_content=a02&utm_source=ts_nl&utm_medium=email&utm_email=0C810E7AE4E7C3CEB3816076F6F9881B&utm_campaign=top_66062

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