Canada: Ontario updates school immunization requirements as Deb Matthews has a few words for Jenny McCarthy
Ontario is strengthening their school immunization requirements for the upcoming school year, requiring proof of immunization against three more diseases, according to a Ontario Ministry of Health news release today.
The province has updated the immunization requirements for the 2014/15 school year to include new mandatory immunizations and dose requirements that align with changes to Ontario’s publicly-funded Immunization Program.
Public domain photo/Wikimedia Commons
Proof of immunization for the 2014/2015 school year will include measles and rubella, updated dose requirements for tetanus, diphtheria, polio and mumps immunizations–and newly added meningococcal disease, whooping cough and –for children born in 2010 or later — chickenpox.
Parents need to ensure their children’s vaccination records are up to date. Once the school year begins, parents will be contacted by the local public health unit if catch-up immunizations are required. For more infectious disease news and information, visit and “like” the Infectious Disease News Facebook page.
Ontario Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, deb Matthews said, “Many harmful diseases have been nearly eradicated in Ontario because of publicly funded vaccines, but children and youth who fail to get immunized still face serious risks. That’s why our government is updating the requirements for school-aged children to be protected from vaccine preventable diseases.”
Deb Matthews
Image/Ontario Ministry of Health
In addition to discussing the new vaccination requirements today, Matthews also had a few choice words for The View host, Jenny McCarthy, who recently penned an Op-Ed in the Chicago Sun-Times. “It’s “outrageously irresponsible” for celebrities like Jenny McCarthy to encourage parents not to immunize their children against potentially deadly diseases”, Matthews said.
“The science is very clear,”she notes. “The study she’s referred to has been discredited many times. There is absolutely no truth in that argument.”
The “Jenny McCarthy effect”has had a detrimental effect on society contributing outbreaks of diseases, not long ago, were considered eradicated. “They’re [parents] starting to realize now that not immunizing your kids can actually result in their death,” Matthews added.
