Mississauga, Brampton school boards’ staff vaccination rates among lowest in Ontario

At their last update, more than 1 in 5 staff members within each of the school boards in Mississauga and Brampton were not yet fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Both the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board (DPCDSB) and Peel District School Board (PDSB) appear to be stragglers, according  to health researcher and public education advocate Sue Gowans’ aggregation of the boards’ inconsistently reported data. They were among the 11 boards — eight Catholic, three public — that were under 80 per cent coverage at last update, per Gowans’ sourced list of staff vaccination rates from nearly 90 per cent of school boards across Ontario. This comes while children born in 2010 or later, who are too young to receive protection against the respiratory virus, are attending school in person.

The Dufferin-Peel Catholic board was estimated to have only 75.9 per cent of its staff fully vaccinated at its last update on Oct. 1. At that time, 89.1 per cent of staff who reported their status said they had received two jabs.

The other Catholic boards believed to be under 80 per cent are: Brant-Haldimand-Norfolk, Bruce-Grey, Halton, Huron Superior, Toronto, York Region and the Sudbury-area French Catholic board.

The Peel public board was estimated to have had 79.1 per cent of staff fully vaccinated as of its Sept. 30 update. Among those who reported their status, there was 90.9 per cent uptake.

The only public boards under 80 per cent were two French-language public boards in Northern Ontario.

📢 Now have public disclosure of staff vax rates from 68/76 ON school bds. Tag me if you see more recent disclosures than I list in this google sheet.

Still need >100K tests/wk to be compliant with @Sflecce's vax or test policy. Doubt they are happening.https://t.co/ZECmKxJXPf

— Sue Gowans (@Sue_Innovates) October 12, 2021

The real reason why everyone needs to get vaccinated is because a small minority of anti-vaccine folks can overwhelm the intensive care unit capacity of the Ontario hospital system and then you're screwed if your appendix bursts or you get in a car accident.

— James McLeod (@jamespmcleod) October 12, 2021

Educators are not required to be vaccinated. School boards are allowed some latitude on how frequently they disclosure vaccination rates to parents, students and the general public.

The highest uptake appears to be in the Rainy River public board in northwestern Ontario. It was credited with a 95-per-cent vaccine uptake as of Sept. 22, nearly three weeks ago.

Thirteen boards were credited with uptake of more than 90 per cent. Eight of those in the public system, and five are in the Catholic system.