B.C. working on mandatory registration following measles outbreak
Posted February 21, 2019 4:14 pm.
Last Updated February 21, 2019 4:37 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VICTORIA (NEWS 1130) – Growing calls for mandatory vaccinations in B.C. are being heard but the health minister says they are taking another approach to ensure people are protected.
Adrian Dix says mandatory registrations at schools instead of mandatory vaccinations is the best option moving forward, noting the move will encourage people to inoculate.
“This type of system was proposed at the time of the last very significant outbreak of measles in 2014 where there were 343 cases reported in British Columbia,” Dix adds. “Our message is clear right now that we get everyone vaccinated right now.”
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He says this follows a model where the process to opt out is more onerous than getting the shot.
“It makes it harder not to be vaccinated. You have to go through a registration system, you have to establish a certain number of things,” he says. “They do that in Ontario and they do that in New Brunswick.”
Concerns over legal challenges, questionable effectiveness and punishing kids for parental decisions are more reasons why Dix says mandatory vaccinations are not the best choice.
He says the new system could be a place in B.C. as soon as September.
