RNAO‘s top priority in August was to urge the provincial government to mandate vaccination for health-care workers, teachers and education staff, as well as implement vaccine passports  for all eligible Ontarians. Our media activity reflects that purpose. The announcement of a vaccine certificate system on Sept. 1 demonstrates the power of speaking out.

Earlier this week the Food and Drug Administration gave full approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in the US. The following is a media release from Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) addressing the COVID-19 crisis in Africa and the devastating lack of vaccines.

RNAO has led the call for mandatory vaccination of workers in health-care and education and has pushed for enacting vaccine certificates in the province. Mandatory vaccination is already under way in key sectors, but much work remains. We are calling on the Ontario government to make an announcement on vaccine certificates on Monday.

RNAO action

The following article is adapted from the website of the Global Strategy Lab (GSL), a joint initiative of York University and the University of Ottawa. It excerpts from an August 16 opinion article in the Toronto Star by GSL Research Fellow Dr. Roojin Habibi, GSL Director Dr. Steven Hoffman and University of Toronto Professor Dr. Lisa Forman.