In this day and age, it's refreshing when a politician actually expresses an opinion.
I am, of course, referring to Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas, who last week refused to sign an exemption form for a Sudbury father whose daughter didn't want to get her measles, mumps and rubella booster.
When the father called our office to complain about the refusal, we called Gélinas, naturally, to see if what he was saying was true, and without missing a beat, she confirmed it.
As the party's health critic and someone who used to work in the health care field (she was a physiotherapist), the MPP said she had to follow her conscience and the science-based evidence that vaccines are safe and effective — regardless of how voters might feel about her position.
Gélinas simply answered the question, a rare occurrence in politics nowadays. We're so used to hearing our elected officials express opinions that we're never sure they actually hold, opinions that have been focused-grouped, opinion-polled and crowd-tested to death, opinions that have been carefully crafted to appeal to the majority.
There's always another election around the corner and few are willing to risk damaging their market share by saying they like apples over oranges.
When a politician doesn't do that, when one takes a real stance, it actually gives me pause, because it seems to have become so foreign.
I, for one, applaud Gélinas. For me, decade upon decade of research and use — and the abolishment of childhood diseases that used to kill and maim with abandon — is solid evidence vaccines work and are safe.
My children are vaccinated and it irritates me to no end to speak with parents who refuse to provide their own children (or mine, thank you herd immunity) with the same protection — even though I know they feel they're acting in the best interest of the child.
When we published the piece on Gélinas, it spread far and wide.
National media picked it up; it trended on the Canada Reddit and the ongoing discussion (all right, truth be told, it's a knock-down, drag-out fight) in the thread under the story at NorthernLife.ca has around 800 comments.
Scrolling through those comments, it surprised me the number of references anti-vaxxers make to Nazis.
Equating vaccination — the effort to stamp out diseases that killed and maimed us for millennia — with one of the darkest regimes in human history is a little much, don't you think? Third Reich experiments on human beings and vaccination are not in the same ball park; they're not even the same game.
We don't force people to be vaccinated, but we do say that if you choose to go that route, there can be a few minor and temporary consequences.
For instance, in the event of an outbreak at your unvaccinated child's school, little Billy or Joanie will have to stay home until the risk has passed. This will prevent your vulnerable child from contracting the illness and, because vaccines aren't 100-per-cent effective, help protect other children from picking up the bug that found a cozy home in your little one.
To me, that's not unreasonable, and it's certainly not Nazi-level totalitarianism. It's just good public health and it's just plain neighbourly.
Measles have hit Northern Ontario, in Elliot Lake to be precise. The complications can be very serious, particularly for those under age five or over age 20.
One of every 20 children who get it will develop pneumonia. The brains of one of every 1,000 children will develop will swell (encephalitis), which can lead to deafness and/or intellectual disability. One or two of every 1,000 will die.
I, for one, would prefer not going back to the days when it was commonplace for children to die from preventable disease. How about you?
Mark Gentili is the managing editor of Northern Life and NorthernLife.ca.
