Dear Minister of Health,

We’re writing this open letter to try and address a situation which we find to be totally ridiculous and extreme.

On April 20th, 2001, my wife and I experienced the birth of our first child, Joseph. Being very concerned about the welfare of our child and wishing to follow all the recommended guidelines with regards to childhood vaccinations, we proceeded as advised by various local health authorities, including our family doctor, our hospital and the local health unit.

On April 15th, 2001, our son received his MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccination. We were told this should be done “around” the date of his first birthday, so we were right on schedule, or so we thought. Recently, after our son started Junior Kindergarten, we were contacted by the Wellington Dufferin Guelph Health Unit, stating that his MMR vaccination was given five (5) days prior to his birthday and therefore was insufficient. We were informed that he would need the vaccination again or that we would have to fill out a “waiver”. Failing either of these two option, our local school board will not allow our son to attend school.

We find this absolutely dumbfounding, that a period of five days would result in having to “jump through hoops” or risk having our child labelled as an outcast, especially since we followed all the professional advice and our own doctor administered the vaccination. Upon further research, we found that even the Ontario Ministry of Health website states “It should be given to children soon after their first birthday”, and the Peel Public Health Unit (undoubtedly one of the largest in Canada) website states “The vaccine should be given to children on or soon after their first birthday”. You'll note that the operative word being used in both cases is should, not must, and that one states after while one states on or soon after. It would appear that even our health authorities cannot state clearly the intent.

Our main concern now is as follows.

Either the vaccination is good or not. If the vaccination still did it’s job like it’s supposed to even though it was given five days early (which I find hard to believe it didn’t since I’m sure it would not have worked differently only five days later), then why are we as parents being given grief and made to run in circles for no apparent reason?

If it didn’t do it’s job, then five days likely wouldn’t have made a difference and the vaccine would not be offering our child protection as promised.

Given the two options by the WDG Health Unit makes us question the following. Why should we be able to sign a “waiver” if the MMR vaccination is mandatory and our vaccination was insufficient? Subsequently, since numerous studies question the effectiveness and safety of the MMR vaccination to begin with, what risks are we subjecting our son to if we submit him to the indignity and pain of another course of vaccination?

Will the local health authorities and school board deny their culpability when our child develops autism (a proven risk)?

We hope that you will choose to respond promptly to this letter and answer our questions with some clarity.

To us this “five day” issue seems to be as absurd as “two bottles of beer...you’re fine to drive, but don’t drink a third or you'll be legally intoxicated”.... either you are or you’re not.

Concerned Parents

Orangeville