Windsor-Essex County Health Unit calls on province to make COVID vaccinations mandatory for students

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The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit board approved a motion at Thursday’s monthly meeting requesting the provincial government to add COVID-19 vaccines to the list of mandatory vaccinations under the School Pupil Immunization Act.

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The law already requires students to receive numerous vaccinations and prohibits the unvaccinated, unless they have an acceptable exemption, from attending classes until they comply.

“We wish we had seen this in place already,” said Nicole Dupuis, executive director of the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit. “We believe it is a step in the right direction.”

The motion comes and Health Canada is expected to approve starting Friday for the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to be used in children under 12 years of age. Currently, anyone 12 years and older is eligible for the vaccines.

Dr. Shanker Nesathurai, Acting Medical Health Officer, applauded the unanimous decision to support the motion, noting that young people are bearing a disproportionate burden in this pandemic. He said that more than 450 students have already been sent home this fall as a result of COVID-19 cases in their cohorts.

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In the past two weeks, 21 percent of all new infections are among people ages zero to 19.

“We are always cautious about demanding that people do something,” Nesathurai said, noting that the positivity rate and the number of cases locally has doubled in the last week.

“In this case, in the middle of a pandemic, we have to balance the problems of autonomy and the problems of the young people who suffer.”

Nesathurai said the data supports the effectiveness of the School Pupil Immunization Act in promoting more comprehensive vaccine coverage to combat other diseases among young people.

“If you look at the evidence of other diseases covered by the Act, there is more than 90 percent coverage for those vaccines,” Nesathurai said. “We are far from that with the COVID-19 vaccine.”

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Although children under the age of 12 are not yet eligible for vaccinations, only 72 percent of local youth between the ages of 12 and 17 are fully vaccinated. The 18-24 age group is even lower at 68.6 percent.

“If we want our community to be healthy and we want to keep our schools open, it adds real value by adding COVID vaccines to the School Pupil Immunization Act,” said Nesathurai.

While acknowledging that good containment strategies within schools prevent the virus from spreading more quickly to other cohorts, Nesathurai said there is a disturbing pattern beginning to develop among children outside of the school setting.

“We have seen clusters of cases in recent weeks and these clusters are linking to other clusters,” Nesathurai said.

“School infections are spread at sporting events and then further spread at social events. This is troublesome. “

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