The Ontario Medical Association has launched an online campaign to discuss vaccinations and vaccine hesitancy. It’s coming at a time where the World Health Organization has named vaccine hesitancy one of the top ten threats to health across the globe.
Dr. Sohail Gandhi is the president of OMA, who represent over 43,000 healthcare professionals. He admits he never thought he’d ever have to head a campaign to discuss vaccine hesitancy, and thinks the birth of the opposition to vaccinations is two-fold.
Gandhi says you have to approach the conversation with facts and compassion, because he’s learned through experience that parents often go looking for an answer when doctors tell them there’s no explanation as to why their child may have a severe illness or disability, and at times the parents fall on the wrong one.
Despite this growing theory, Ghandi says Canada still has a high child immunization rate, but we’re falling behind in adult immunizations which needs to improve. The campaign website is askontariodoctors.ca
