We’re failing the test on vaccination

A new study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal confirms what has always been obvious to most people: Unvaccinated people are a disproportionately greater risk in terms of spreading COVID-19 than that those fully vaccinated.

Of course they are, you say. Common sense says that since unvaccinated people are much more likely to be infected than vaccinated people, they’re also more likely to spread the virus than the vaccinated population.

Which isn’t to say that the research done by Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health isn’t important. It adds scientific certainty to that common sense observation, and equally important, it speaks volumes about why collective responsibility should trump personal choice when it comes to pandemic vaccination.

Or, as the study authors put it, while “the decision not to receive vaccination is often framed in terms of the rights of individuals to opt out, such arguments neglect the potential harms to the wider community that derive from poor vaccine uptake.”

Knowing this, the provincial government’s position on mandatory school vaccination, for example, makes less sense than ever. Just as vaccinations for other viruses, such as measles, are mandatory absent a valid exemption, so should they be for COVID. Ontario schools would be in an entirely different situation had the government opted for mandatory vaccination in the name of public health.

This new science should also be of special interest to Hamiltonians, because in our community, vaccination rollout is stalled. As reported this week by Spec health journalist Joanna Frketich, just 58 per cent of local adults have all three vaccine doses. People aged 18-34, for example, are below 50 per cent. Vaccination is stalled among 12-17 year olds. Nearly half of children aged five to 11 have no shots. And Hamilton has not yet achieved the goal of vaccinating 90 per cent of the eligible population 59 and younger.

Given all this, is it any wonder hospital admissions are rising, health-care staff isolating, and outbreaks are growing at hospitals, seniors’ homes and in other congregate settings?

Because PCR testing is no longer readily available, wastewater monitoring is the best metric available, and it is currently at its highest level in Hamilton, and still growing for this region, which includes Hamilton, Brant, Haldimand-Norfolk, Niagara, Waterloo and Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph.

So if you feel like you now know more people than ever with the virus, it’s probably because you do. Higher vaccination rates would mean lower infection rates, and less overall damage to community health. But here we are.

The hidden cost of secrecy

We would not typically make an argument that says Hamilton city council and the federal government have a lot in common. But there’s a first time for everything.

This week the government announced a public inquiry into its use of the Emergencies Act to enforce the law and disperse trucker convoy blockades at borders and in Ottawa. Before you give the Trudeau government too much credit, bear in mind it had no choice — it is the law, as it should be.

Also this week, Hamilton’s infamous Red Hill Valley Parkway public inquiry got underway. They have this much in common.

The government is refusing to say if it will invoke cabinet secrecy rules to withhold information from the Emergencies Act inquiry, and the enabling legislation says it must “take all steps necessary to prevent any disclosure of information to persons or bodies other than the Government of Canada that would be injurious to international relations, national defence or national security.” In other words, prepare for a lot of redaction and exclusion.

And Hamilton City Hall is seeking, and will get, a legal ruling on withholding 87 documents the city argues should be protected by “legal privilege.”

Has no political big-brain pointed out how terrible the optics are here? As in, look at all we are doing to be transparent ... but, in case there’s information we don’t want you to have, we have a backdoor key to secrecy ... Both governments may quickly see how quickly credibility can be mortally wounded by casually invoked secrecy.