Sorry, not sorry

Your unsigned editorial in the September issue of the The Lindsay Advocate, entitled “We Need Mandatory Vaccinations for Youth in School” was an outrageous promotion of a practice that is, in fact, illegal in Canada. Please do your research before printing such offensive and dangerous garbage. In particular, take note of Public Health Canada Volume 23S4-May 1997:

“Unlike in some countries, immunization is not mandatory in Canada; it cannot be made mandatory because of the Canadian Constitution.” You would also be well advised to note that promoting illegal practices, particularly promoting dangerous experimental drugs to children and youth, carries significant legal liability. If this was your editor’s personal opinion, I recommend they not shy away from signing it. If it is the position of your magazine, I will be expecting an apology in your next issue.

–M. Horton, Kawartha Lakes

–Editorials are not signed because they are often written by two or more people and are, in fact, the position of the magazine. In the same Public Health Canada volume that you cite we note their unwavering support for vaccines, even in the preface. Vaccines have been so successful in preventing public health catastrophes they even list three revealing disadvantages to vaccines. These are complacency without the proper scrutinization and updating of vaccination programs; opposition to vaccines from new generations that have never had to live through the scourge of preventable diseases and therefore don’t understand a vaccine’s value; and how widespread coverage is increasingly difficult to get when there remains a stubborn segment of the population that chooses not to get vaccinated.

Also, we lastly note that if something is not mandatory that does not make it illegal.

–The Advocate