The province should consider not allowing parents to continue exempting their children from vaccines on philosophical or religious grounds, Toronto’s board of health voted on Monday morning, amid howls of outrage and cries of “shame” from a gallery packed with parents who opposed the move.“We’re not going to wait for an outbreak,” board of health chair Joe Cressy said in support of the recommendation, one of many in a report from Toronto’s medical officer of health, Eileen de Villa, that looked at ways to address the growing issue of vaccine hesitancy.“Vaccine hesitancy” is a term used to describe the growing number of people who are hesitant about getting vaccinated or having their children vaccinated. Data from TPH indicates that as many as 20 per cent of GTA residents are vaccine hesitant.The public gallery in the committee room at Toronto city hall was packed with people critical of the safety of vaccines, and they were repeatedly admonished not to clap or otherwise disrupt the meeting. Dozens more filled the atrium of the building at 100 Queen St. W., cheering each time a speaker criticized vaccines as unsafe.Dozens of speakers testified against vaccines, claiming they or their children had been injured by their side effects.“Our faith in what happened to our children is unshakable,” said Alexandra Harrison, one of the speakers at the meeting, who identified herself as the mother of a vaccine-injured child.Parents can currently have their children exempted from vaccine programs on religious or philosophical grounds and the number of those exemptions is growing — from 0.8 per cent in 2006 to 1.7 per cent currently, according to Toronto public health data. The board does not oppose vaccination exemptions based on medical concerns, supported by a certified medical professional. Dr. Allison McGeer, an infectious diseases specialist at Mount Sinai Hospital, told the board that vaccines have ...
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