40% doubt science on vaccines, poll finds

Forty per cent of Canadians believe the science behind vaccinations isn’t clear, according to a new Angus Reid poll.

However, 88% of those surveyed said they believe vaccines are effective at preventing disease in individuals and only slightly less — 86% — believe they prevent disease in the community as a whole.

The poll of 1,509 Canadian adults was conducted amid media coverage of measles outbreaks in California, Toronto and Quebec’s Lanaudière region, and growing criticism of parents who oppose vaccination.

Forty per cent of respondents agreed “the science on vaccinations isn’t quite clear;” and the survey revealed that younger Canadians and those with children under 18 years old were among the least likely to feel confident about vaccines.

Forty-four per cent of respondents aged 18 to 34 agreed vaccines are very effective in preventing diseases; compared with 62% of those aged 55 and older. The younger respondents were also more likely to agree vaccines carry “a real risk of serious side effects” or that vaccinating children is important for community protection.

“It seems like what you’d expect in a way, because younger people have not ever experienced these diseases like older people may have done, or even their parents may not have experienced these diseases,” said Dr. Natasha Crowcroft, chief of infectious diseases at Public Health Ontario.

Debate about the efficacy and side-effects of vaccines

We have to have a different view

has been stoked once again by an outbreak at California’s Disneyland. Eight unvaccinated Quebec children contracted the disease through the Disneyland outbreak.

In the Toronto outbreak, only one of the six affected had been vaccinated, prompting questions about whether the vaccine should be mandatory.

Health Minister Rona Ambrose said this week that parents who refuse to get their children immunized are irresponsible and put other children at risk.

She noted that a 1998 study that linked measles, mumps and rubella vaccines to autism has been debunked and that the researcher was forced to retract his fraudulent claims.

In the survey, 83% of parents polled said they would vaccinate their children. But that, according to Dr. Crowcroft, may not be enough. The ideal is 95% immunization to protect the population at large, although the ideal for measles is 97%, she said.

“There are places where being skeptical is OK,” Dr. Crowcroft said. “But when it comes to stuff that puts lives at risk, then we have to have a different view of them.”

Of those polled, 74% said they believe people who oppose vaccines are “irresponsible.”

The poll, conducted Feb. 9 to 11, has a margin of error of +/- 2.5%, 19 times out of 20.