Okay. The second thing I wanted to talk about is that we have a lot of doom and gloom on children's health but as somebody who has worked 35 years as an acute care doctor, and certainly a big part of that has been looking after children, it would seem to me that if you look at infectious disease, which is a big cause of physical morbidity and mortality in children, that has really, in my experience, in 35 years from when I started practising, appreciably decreased.
Now we have vaccinations for haemophilus influenzae, meningococcus, pneumococcus and certainly now.... When I started my practice, meningitis wasn't uncommon, bacterial meningitis.... Now you practically never see bacterial meningitis. Epiglottitis, usually caused by influenza, you hardly ever see it anymore. I think there's a lot less pneumonia. Even a colleague of mine who I went to medical school with, who does family practice, was saying he sees a lot less otitis media, again probably as a result of those vaccinations.
Now having said that, we're seeing some troubling numbers in terms of vaccination in Canada. Apparently only 76% of children are vaccinated with DPT, polio, and under...COVID apparently in parts of the country, Manitoba, Alberta, we're seeing a 20% decrease in vaccination.
I wonder if you could comment. I see Dr. Roy shaking her head there. Could you comment on how important vaccines have been in terms of improving children's health and what is happening in terms of decreased vaccination rates in Canada?