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Michael Gardam

Canadian infectious disease physician and former CEO of Health P.E.I., now a healthcare leadership consultant with Schulich Executive Education at York University.

Aug 14, 2025

10:28
Where are the mandates? What should they be, Michael? If you were designing a measles mandate, what does it look like?
10:34
Yeah, it's a really tough one because we've generally, you know, even when we had a vaccine mandate, it wasn't that you must get a vaccine.
10:42
You're allowed to not get a vaccine.
10:45
It just means you may not be able to do everything that everybody else does, right? Even when I worked clinically in tuberculosis and I had somebody with highly contagious TB, multi-drug resistant, refusing their medication, public health still wouldn't force them to take the pills.
11:01
They would just remove them from society.
11:04
Which is pretty harsh, right? So I think that as a society, we kind of, I think we've kind of spoken and said that we're not going to hold you down and vaccinate you.
11:14
I don't think that a lot of people would agree with that, even though personally.

11 MINS LATER

21:51
Is that a big resource issue or is that easily achievable? Are there things we could be doing right now that would help move some of that thinking around vaccinations broadly in the right direction?
10:28
Where are the mandates? What should they be, Michael? If you were designing a measles mandate, what does it look like?
10:34
Yeah, it's a really tough one because we've generally, you know, even when we had a vaccine mandate, it wasn't that you must get a vaccine.
10:42
You're allowed to not get a vaccine.
10:45
It just means you may not be able to do everything that everybody else does, right? Even when I worked clinically in tuberculosis and I had somebody with highly contagious TB, multi-drug resistant, refusing their medication, public health still wouldn't force them to take the pills.
11:01
They would just remove them from society.
11:04
Which is pretty harsh, right? So I think that as a society, we kind of – I think we've kind of spoken and said that we're not going to hold you down and vaccinate you.
11:14
I don't think that a lot of people would agree with that, even though personally – what's the big deal about getting a vaccine? But I understand that holding somebody down and vaccinating them is a very different scenario.

10 MINS LATER

21:51
Is that a big resource issue or is that easily achievable? Are there things we could be doing right now that would help move some of that thinking around vaccinations broadly in the right direction?

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