As Canada finally removes Covid vaccine requirements for entry into the country, most of our decision-makers still seem oblivious to an unseemly Wild West of vaccination pressures and practices that endure, without rhyme or reason, on the ground across our vast territory..This past July, Ontario’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Kieran Moore, made clear that additional boosters for teenagers under 18 were not necessary due to a myocarditis risk of one in 5,000..In fact, the myocarditis risk for teenage boys and young men is demonstrably higher on the strength of both the Ontario Public Health numbers and multiple international studies over the last year and a half. And indeed, within days of Dr. Moore’s admission, the German federal ministry of health tweeted out that one in 5,000 doses of mRNA vaccination results in serious side effects..Twitter did not allow many Canadians to retweet the German advisory, betraying a basic capture of our national information space by American social media companies and the preferences of their algorithms, to the patent disservice of our own Canadian population..Shortly thereafter, the United Kingdom would end Covid vaccination for children under the age of 11, with Denmark ending vaccination for everyone under the age of 18. Sweden for its part, had decided at the outset against vaccinating children under 12, citing no clear net benefit..As if inhabiting a parallel universe, Canada approved mRNA vaccination for children aged six months to five years on July 14th, with Ottawa’s medical officer of health, Dr. Vera Etches, tweeting out that she was “so excited” by this new availability. The scientific or policy basis for such “excitement” was not clear. For a close reading of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) briefing suggested an exceedingly modest, almost bashful approval of this pediatric vaccination series, based on extremely limited trials, data and real-world experience. Safety evidence was to be monitored on a going-forward basis.. DuclosHealth Minister Jean-Yves Duclos .Yet in June, Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos made the federal government position clear: “The COVID-19 virus is evolving and Omicron has cruelly made it clear to us that we will never be ''fully vaccinated'' against COVID. Like the virus, our immunity also evolves and Omicron made us understand that two doses are not enough: we must keep our vaccination up to date… Being up to date on your vaccination means you received your last dose within the last 9 months. If you have already received your first booster dose, find out if and when you will be eligible for a new dose.”.By September 1st, Canada’s fall booster campaign was well underway, with Minister Duclos tweeting that Canada had approved “the first variant-targeting vaccine against Omicron, Moderna’s Spikevax bivalent,” as a booster dose for Canadians over the age of 18. The tweet, pinned by the minister for several weeks, read more like a pharmaceutical advertisement for a foreign brand — no single Canadian Covid-related prophylactic or therapeutic having been developed and approved over the last three years — than the language of a public servant presiding serenely over the well-being of the population. Dr. Moore’s warning and the information from the German health ministry were not mentioned, even as the trials supporting the approval were extremely superficial..The minister’s unqualified enthusiasm — nay, hype — had apparently been anticipated by the University of Western Ontario and several other Canadian post-secondary institutions, which announced in late August that students returning to school would be forced to receive a booster shot in order to be enrolled for study. That many of the students in these fine institutions would be in the age group most likely to be at risk for vaccine-induced myocarditis was apparently not a nuance of moment..On October 7th, Minister Duclos would approve Pfizer’s bivalent vaccine as a booster for Canadians aged 12 and up, recommending that all Canadians — young males not excepted — stay “up to date” on their Covid-19 vaccination. Once again, not a mention of Dr. Moore’s myocarditis warning in respect of young males, even as the Health Canada news release stated that the new vaccine was “expected to have a similar safety profile to the original Pfizer-BioNTech Comirnaty vaccine”..What are we doing in this once fair land? Have we lost our minds?.The position that holds that we are still vaccinating anyone who moves 'just because' or 'because I say so – or else!' at any given moment, capriciously, regardless of individual or collective consequence, is one of patent mania. And I am against mania always..This very Canadian mania must end immediately — particularly where it concerns conspicuous cruelty toward our youngsters, who once enjoyed the freest childhoods in the world..Let me be clear. Covid-19 vaccination for specific, immunocompromised demographics and the very elderly may continue, but for the lion’s share of the population — and particularly for healthy children, adolescents and young adults, most of whom have already had Covid at least once — there is no clear net benefit in endless vaccination. Indeed, the contrary is increasingly true: We are now vaccinating for form and ritual, through inertial forces, with no regard for possible harm to many Canadians. For our teenagers, and especially for teenage boys and young male adults, with the smallest exceptions, additional vaccination now presents a net harm scenario. And that many clubs, organizations and institutions should still be forcing such net harm scenarios down their throats in exchange for what were once considered basic Canadian goods — education, sport or dignity — is a perversion of the standards of a civilized people. And I still consider us a very civilized people..The federal minister of health must categorically end this madness now, across the entire country, or otherwise resign..Irvin Studin is President of The Institute for 21st Century Questions, Editor-in-Chief of Global Brief magazine, and Chair of the Worldwide Commission to Educate All Kids (Post-Pandemic). He also co-chairs the Canada Science & Policy Committee to Exit the Pandemic.
