Alberta Premier Kenney says he will not make coronavirus vaccine mandatory

Speaking on a Facebook livestream on Wednesday night, Kenney said that "There’s been some misinformation that the government recently adopted a law requiring mandatory vaccinations. That is completely untrue."

"That is just a total myth," added the Albertan premier. "The truth is that since 1910, the Public Health Act, or its previous legislation, has had the ability to require mandatory inoculation."

"That’s, as far as we know, never been used and certainly the government has no intention of making that mandatory," he concluded.

Kenney was accompanied by Alberta's chief medical officer of health alongside members of his cabinet when he made these comments.

Despite the fact that Kenney would not make the vaccine mandatory, he did say that his government would wholeheartedly encourage Albertans to take the vaccine.

"Some people [that] for whatever reasons they have, individual reasons, may choose not to participate," said Kenney. "We’ll wait and see what happens scientifically on this."

Despite the anticipation surrounding the development of a coronavirus vaccine, it is still unclear whether one actually can be produced. A vaccine for SARS, for instance, has never been developed—alongside a plethora of other deadly viruses.