Honourable senators, I rise today to speak to the inquiry that Senator Moodie brought forth on vaccine hesitancy.

The World Health Organization has identified vaccine hesitancy, or vaccine resistance, as one of the top 10 global health threats of 2019. It is defined as the reluctance or refusal to be vaccinated or to have one’s children vaccinated, despite the availability of vaccines and the evidence thereof.

Vaccination is one of the most cost-effective ways of preventing a long list of diseases, many of which have become increasingly rare. Many practitioners in Canada have never seen a case of measles, polio, diphtheria or pertussis. Vaccines currently prevent 2 to 3 million deaths a year globally, and a further 1.5 million could be prevented if global coverage of vaccinations improved.

While most Canadians do vaccinate their children, we fall far behind the rates that are achieved in other developed countries. According to 2017 OECD statistics, Canada has one of the lowest child vaccination rates in the developed world. One in ten Canadian children are not vaccinated and remain vulnerable to a host of potentially fatal, vaccine-preventable diseases. Recent studies have found that one third of Canadians are now beginning to express vaccine hesitation.

With the resurgence of vaccine-preventable diseases, as illustrated by a recent measles outbreak, there is reason to further investigate this phenomenon. In light of National Immunization Awareness Week that took place from April 20 to 27, we hosted an open caucus meeting on vaccine hesitancy. The open caucus, as you know, is a forum for discussion on issues of national importance. This particular meeting was organized in collaboration with the four ISG physicians in the Senate. I applaud the dynamic collaboration with Senators Kutcher, Moodie, Mégie and their respective teams. My sincere gratitude goes out, as well, to my staff Sarah Polowin and Jan McIlveen for their invaluable contribution.

We were fortunate to have the top experts in the field make presentations, including Dr. Theresa Tam, the Chief Public Health Officer for Canada; Timothy Caulfield, the Canada Research Chair in Health and Law Policy; André Picard, a health columnist with The Globe and Mail; Dr. Noni MacDonald, Professor of Pediatrics at Dalhousie University; and Dr. Anna Banerji, the Faculty Lead in Indigenous and Refugee Health at the University of Toronto.

The takeaway message from the open caucus was clear: We have a huge task ahead of us. We reflected and wondered if we had become the victims of our own success through previous vaccinations. We realized that we need to create a national vaccine framework, including a comprehensive immunization recordkeeping system, a national register and a harmonized vaccine schedule that is parallel across the country. A robust public education campaign for all Canadians with input from all stakeholders is critical. We need to refine our science and literacy skills to combat the fake news that permeates social media, including Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. We need to closely examine the tools, resources and personnel that we have available. A confrontational approach at this stage would only foster hostility and further distrust.

In my home province of Newfoundland and Labrador, we enjoy a very high uptake in immunizations. Dr. Claudia Sarbu, Newfoundland and Labrador’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, has noted that immunization rates in my province are upwards of 95 per cent, which is enough to foster a concept of what’s called herd or community immunity. This form of immunity occurs when a critical mass of a population is immune to infectious diseases through vaccination or prior illness. When this form of immunity is achieved, spread of disease from person-to-person becomes unlikely. Even individuals who have not been vaccinated, such as newborns and those with chronic illnesses, are offered some protection because the disease has little opportunity to spread within the community.

In comparison to my province, national immunization rates unfortunately fall well below that percentage.

In Newfoundland and Labrador, there have only been two confirmed cases of measles in the last 20 years, both in 2017, and both related to outside travel.

In my province, public health plays a critical role in ensuring vaccination rates are high. Our public health nurses make a point, particularly at school entry, of going out and making sure that if there are new children in the neighbourhoods, that they are immunized and up to schedule. Stringent tracking and follow-up are routine.

Young children aged two months to five years receive their immunization from the community health nurse at their local health unit. School-aged children are offered immunization programs delivered by community health nurses in special immunization clinics at the child’s school.

As was highlighted in the open caucus, health care workers, especially those in communities, do remain the most trusted advisers and influencers of vaccination decisions. Nurses and other allied health professionals are the front-line workers of defence against this concept of vaccine hesitancy. It is absolutely critical that we take an interdisciplinary, integrative approach to ensure that they have the necessary supports to deliver vaccinations.

During my medical training in Zimbabwe, I witnessed the catastrophic outcomes of a population that had very low vaccination rates. Outbreaks of common infectious diseases resulted in very high mortality and morbidity. Those who survived were left with debilitating sequelae including blindness, infertility, developmental delay, paralysis and chronic heart and lung disease.

Vaccine hesitancy is a serious threat to public health and the overall well-being of Canadians. I look forward to your support, honourable colleagues, as we jointly move forward to address this critical public health issue.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. Meegwetch.