The ultimate path out of COVID hinges on mass vaccine buy-in, University of Manitoba researchers recently wrote. But Canada appears to be hitting a complacency wall, with the lowest uptake being among the university-age demographic, the 18- to 29-year-olds. Some warn that anything that hints of a de facto vaccine mandate risks trampling individual liberty and autonomy, while others argue that it’s astonishing more universities in Canada are not requiring vaccination for on-campus attendance.
There are no mandatory vaccines in Canada. The current COVID-19 vaccines have been granted emergency use authorization, not full approval, which might make any policy legally shaky. Offer vaccines, urge them and hope people take them, bioethicist Arthur Caplan has said, but people are free to say no. According to a World Health Organization policy brief on the ethical considerations and caveats of mandatory COVID vaccination, “policy-makers should consider specifically whether vaccines authorized for emergency or conditional use meet an evidentiary threshold for safety sufficient for a mandate.”
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