title: Compulsory school-entry vaccination laws and exemptions: who is opting out in ontario and why does it matter?
abstract: School-entry vaccination regulations are a policy instrument that has been widely used in some jurisdictions as a mechanism to ensure high immunization coverage rates. Exemptions to school-entry vaccination, which can be allowed on medical or non-medical grounds, present a number of ethical and policy challenges. In this paper, we consider the situation in Canada, where school-entry vaccination laws are rare. We present newly available aggregate-level registry data from Ontario comparing the use of medical and non-medical immunization exemptions to school-entry vaccination and the implications for population health.
authors.affiliation: Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Public Policy and Governance, University of Toronto Toronto, ON.
authors.forename: Catherine L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Mah
authors.forename: Astrid
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Guttmann
authors.forename: Allison
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: McGeer
authors.forename: Murray
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Krahn
authors.forename: Raisa B
authors.initials: RB
authors.lastname: Deber