Petition Update Aug 26, 2015
CMA Doctors vote against a National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, but Stop Short of calling for mandatory vaccination of children.
There were 6 motions on the CMA convention floor today that related to vaccinations.
The only one that did not pass was Motion DM5-26 recommending establishment of a National Compensation Program for debilitating vaccine injuries. The motion failed with 70% against a compensation plan and 27% in favour. Only three doctors spoke for the motion (as a matter of justice). All the other doctors spoke against the motion arguing about the difference between vaccine-caused injuries and vaccine-associated injuries. One doctor said there was no scientific proof that vaccines even caused injury! Many doctors who spoke against the motion were concerned that a compensation program would be “used by” the “anti-vax” movement or that it would frighten parents away if they thought their children could be injured by vaccinations. Doctors seemed completely unable to come to terms with the fact that vaccines do cause injuries.
The other 5 motions all passed, some unanimously.
The motion DM5-69 is the motion which the CMA announced in June would call “for proof that all children attending childcare or school have received age appropriate immunizations except where medically contraindicated.” Further it was this CMA announcement which prompted media stories on mandated vaccinations and prompted VCC to write to the CMA opposing this motion and to initiate this petition. When the motion came to the floor this morning it read as follows:
“The CMA recommends that governments authorize elementary and secondary schools to require a declaration of immunization status, to be followed by a conversation between public health officials and parents where children are shown to be inadequately immunized.”
Obviously the CMA realized that mandates without personal or religious exemptions would be going a step too far sometime between when they made their announcement and later in the month when they drafted the motion.
However that didn’t stop them from recommending that parents, like schoolchildren being sent to the principal’s office, must meet with public health officials to have their “social conformity” adjusted. Yes, the rationale for this motion actually states:
“Just having to declare their children’s immunization status makes parents more aware of the importance of vaccination and has a social conformity effect.”
You can see all the member motions and their rationales in the Annotated Members Motions pdf posted on our website. The quote above is from page 14 of that pdf.
The motion passed with 97% approval.
The establishment and enforcement of this CMA recommendation will devolve to provincial governments.
Two motions had to do with establishing a national immunization registry and a call for vaccine registries to accept information directly from patient electronic medical records. These recommendations will be implemented by both federal and provincial levels of government through their public health bureaucracies.
The last two motions call for developing information and tools to support doctors’ “critical role in supporting immunizations” and ” the development of a national plan to address vaccine hesitancy”.
This last motion on vaccine hesitancy came in at the end of the voting session (with no backup documents we could access). This is odd since it is apparent vaccine compliance is really what they are concerned about as coverage rates drop. On page 8 of our Adverse Events Update Report you can see a chart that shows coverage rates have dropped off between 2011 and 2013 anywhere from 5% to 15% depending on the vaccines.
So dear 4,000+ signers of this petition, no mandates yet! That is a good thing! But the collection of data and the plans of how to convince you to conform (once they know who you are) are in the works. And the CMA will lobbying all levels of government.
We are not taking the petition down yet. Keep signing. The petition will be foundational as we continue our work to protect our right to informed consent for medical interventions.
View also: Early Release from Canadian Medical Journal: Parents Should Declare Children’s Vaccine Status: (PDF) A national registry of immunization is “essential,” said CMA President Dr. Cindy Forbes.
