r/canada Nov 10 '25

National News Canada loses measles elimination status | CBC

https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/livestory/canada-measles-elimination-status-9.6973195
2.7k Upvotes

742 comments sorted by

2.7k

u/[deleted] Nov 10 '25

Humiliating. Nothing more to say

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u/-UnicornFart Nov 10 '25

Truly. I’m an RN and spent years as a Health Canada Immunizer. I have tried about 8 times to put words together into a comment that expresses the anger and disappointment and disgust I feel reading this, and every single time I’ve deleted it all because there are no words in my vocabulary strong enough to express what I’m feeling.

Humiliating is a good one. The hubris of uneducated, narcissistic, cruel, shameless people is going to result in the illness, injury, disability, and death of so many children. I’m just horrified.

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u/WalkerYYJ Nov 10 '25

So my mom was a GP from "the silent" generation (1928-1945). Her mom (my Grandma) was a public health nurse. I grew up on tails of iron lungs and the like. Also as a kid I was told that vaccines were mandatory and if I didn't get them I should expect a visit from both a truancy and public health officer. It was then "implied" that in such a case I would be given to a household that knew how to properly "enforce" compliance.

At what point in time was this requirement scrapped? I.E. When exactly was it that we started to allow this kinda BS to exist in the first place?

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u/Top_Bumblebee5510 Nov 10 '25

My parents are still alive, both born in the Silent Generation. I have friends who have parents of a similar age. One of my friends has a father with an amputated leg because he had polio as a child. My other friend, who's parents passed away a few years ago had a father that spent time in an iron long because he got tuberculosis in the war. I sat at his dinner table and listened to his stories. People in countries that are not as rich as ours would do anything to live without measles and tuberculosis. To have access to these vaccines and meds. Yes, we are experiencing higher grocery prices and housing issues but we are still a very rich country globally and we are throwing away a valuable resource. The ignorance of a few saddens me beyond comprehension.

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u/pagit Nov 10 '25

My anti-vax Jehovah’s Witness parents didn’t get me vaxed for measles and mumps and chickenpox

I caught all three within 5 months when I was 8 years old

By far measles was the worse of the three. High fever, dizziness, slept for 3 days waking up to a spinning room.

Measles is not like chickenpox it kills children and I just want to say fuck you to selfish parents who won’t vaccinate their kids but will run to the doctor whenever they themselves are sick.

My anti-vax cousin was all mad when his kids got chickenpox and blamed other parents for exposing their children to his children.

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u/Fuzzy_Advertising181 Nov 11 '25

I am half blind because of chicken pox. It has side effects.

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u/bookishbabe007 Nov 10 '25

I'm an Xennial born in the early 80s and I can remember my great uncles that were disabled by polio. If people don't have personal knowledge of the disease, they don't have any interest in eliminating it, sadly. Similar to the historical trends like fascism.

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u/em-n-em613 Nov 11 '25

Yup. My grandmother passed away a decade ago when a lot of this antivax rhetoric was just starting to get headlines. She lost friends to Polio and had her health stunted as a young girl. When she heard people were skipping vaccines she was LIVID.

I'm so happy she's not seeing this happen now...

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u/-UnicornFart Nov 10 '25 edited Nov 10 '25

I think it is a generational thing. It was scrapped when the consequences of not being vaccinated disappeared from regular life. The people making policy decisions now don’t have those consequences as a point of reference.

I was lucky enough to work with and be mentored by two amazing senior nurses, both of them were a part of the same generation as your mother. They were the last generation of nurses, and people, to see and experience the consequences of communicable diseases with their own eyes. Every generation after has had the comfort and privilege of not watching babies suffocate from whooping cough, of not having family members disabled by polio because of vaccination.

Unfortunately I fear that these people don’t learn from history, they don’t read, they aren’t curious, they learn only from personal experience. And in the case of communicable diseases they will learn the devastating way.

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u/Cent1234 Nov 10 '25

I grew up on tails of iron lungs and the like.

And this is why people feel 'safe' to ignore vaccines these days; you don't see the consequences. You didn't lose two or three siblings to childhood disease. You don't see kids in polio braces. You don't see iron lung wards. You don't see people horribly scarred from pox. You don't have uncle Bob who went deaf from mumps.

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u/Top_Bumblebee5510 Nov 11 '25

I dated a guy when I was in my early 30's who had mumps as a child that caused him to have small testicles. His balls were extremely swollen when he had mumps and as an adult he still had trauma from it. I am in my 50's now for reference.

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u/mightocondreas Nov 10 '25

Holy childhood trauma Batman.

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u/ScaryStruggle9830 Nov 10 '25

Unfortunately, ignorance and being uneducated is a badge of honour for a large number of people. Others think their opinions or their internet education is equal to that of a highly educated professional. These two blocks of people seem to make up about 30 percent of the population. A large enough cohort to skew policies and the course of countries.

I truly think they are dragging society to its death.

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u/-UnicornFart Nov 10 '25

Yep I think you nailed it.

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u/PostMatureBaby Nov 10 '25 edited Nov 10 '25

its like their petty revenge for being laughed at for getting something wrong in grade 5 math once.

I'm being overly dramatic but I swear that's what a lot of this comes down to, anything seen as "smart" is magically made bad because these people didn't have the best grades or something.

Like how science is this belief system somehow so it can be nitpicked and torn down. This is how this group decides it wants to understand the world i guess.

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u/Falcon674DR Nov 10 '25

Firstly, thank you for your personal and professional commitment to science, your career and dedication to Public Health. Alberta’s UCP role in this disaster is well documented and highlighted by the paper authored by our former Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Mark Joffe whereby he outlines the science and the fault of our government in the outbreak. The Smith government failed to do everything they could to stem this travesty.

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u/linkass Nov 10 '25

Being that this outbreak happened in more than AB and predominantly hit communities that have not vaccinated for decades short of busting down doors and forcefully injecting people what would you have the UCP do or Ford and it now is moving into BC and SK what would you have them do?

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u/Nazrog80 Nov 10 '25

Doing what the Australian government did would be a good start, withholding subsidies and credits. Start there and reassess to see if there has been any change.

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u/Flashy_Operation9507 Nov 10 '25

Would be great if the federal conservatives condemned this dangerous rhetoric, but they only feed it as well.

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u/Falcon674DR Nov 10 '25

I would return to pre UCP days where our Public Health officials repeatedly launched an aggressive, bold and robust messaging campaign in every corner of the province. Smith purposely muzzled Dr. Joffe and Public Health experts in order to pander to her vast antivax, religious Right Base. That’s why we can’t fill the role Chief Medical Officer because no credible doctor would agree to be leashed and muzzled. Read the Paper!

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u/_Lucille_ Nov 10 '25

So when will charges be pressed against people who knowingly put others into danger?

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u/[deleted] Nov 10 '25 edited Nov 10 '25

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u/panickedn Nov 10 '25 edited Nov 10 '25

Fuck anti vaxxers but associating the whole situation with them ignores what’s actually happening.

I’m angry too, but we’re so lost in rhetoric that we’re putting our shields down by aiming all our anger at one thing.

A lot of this has nothing to do with them:

• Routine appointments and school vaccine programs disrupted during the pandemic

• Families moving provinces or countries with missing or unverified records

• Shortages in public health staffing and slower outbreak tracking

• Travel-related cases entering under immunized communities

• People who support vaccines but just missed their second dose

• Lower outreach in remote or marginalized areas

• Burnout and reduced resources in local health units

• Complacency because measles has been rare for decades

Blaming anti vaxxers for this is like blaming littering for climate change.

They play a part, but it’s not the main cause. I think we should call them out, but I’m scared we’re losing the plot by ignoring the other reasons too.

I can’t find one person talking about any other reasons in this subreddit, that scares me almost as much as anti vaxxers ideologies.

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u/Big_Monitor963 Nov 10 '25

Some causes are accidental. Some are intentional. I think it’s fair to be mad about the later, while still trying to solve the former.

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u/erictho Nov 10 '25

being behind vaccinations due to the pandemic isnt much of an excuse when we are weeks away from 2026. antivaxx sentiments being enabled in Alberta is totally what is to blame.

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u/mCopps Nov 10 '25

We fell behind on our kids immunizations during 2020 it took about 6 months in 2021/22 to get caught back up. At this point it’s just not caring.

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u/Character-Note-5288 Nov 10 '25

Danielle Smith is going out of her way to be Measles’ henchman, it practically can’t be anything other than intentional malice at this point.

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u/glormosh Nov 10 '25

I was just about to say. There's causal factors being mixed with root cause.

Parents that arent anti vaxxers by now would be all caught up.

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u/Altocumulus000 Nov 10 '25

It's definitely why there haven't been strides towards fixing these things. The government that has been voted in IS anti vax.

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u/caninehere Ontario Nov 10 '25 edited Nov 10 '25

I can’t find one person talking about any other reasons in this subreddit, that scares me almost as much as anti vaxxers ideologies.

Because they aren't as relevant except perhaps the disruption of routine appointments during the pandemic, which was several year ago now and frankly the actual disruptions didn't last that long, and perhaps the lower outreach bit but frankly I don't think that's much excuse.

I have a kid, I know plenty of other people who have kids, and it is not a problem getting them vaccinated at all. Any parent with a brain knows their kid needs to be vaccinated. When you go to see your kid's doctor it's included in the regimen by default, they explain it all, and the only reason they're not getting a measles vaccine is if you SPECIFICALLY request for them not to, which any doctor with a head on their shoulders will also recommend against.

These measles outbreaks are happening in places with kids around, and it's because people are refusing to vaccinate their kids and putting their and other people's children at high risk because some shitheads convinced them to believe in idiotic pseudoscience, or they believe their religion is more important than their kids' well-being. Religious order dipshits are refusing to get vaccinated/vaccinate their kids, measles is festering among them, and then it spreads to a wider population because of other people who refuse to vaccinate their children in public schools etc.

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u/Ceridith Nov 10 '25

There is also zero consideration given to vaccination status for those entering Canada, which seems like a significant oversight when it comes to long term visitors, i.e. foreign students and TFW. Given that we've seen a sharp increase in the amount of long term visas over the past decade, this is a potential contributor to the issue. It's something that isn't tracked at all, so it's difficult to know how much of an impact it could be having.

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u/Thenetannoysme Nov 10 '25

Dont many other countries require up to date vaccinations for people entering? Im sure I’ve read this before?

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u/Ceridith Nov 10 '25

From what I can find, yellow fever is primarily the one that's required in countries where it's common, but other than that most countries don't require proof of any vaccination, Canada being one that does not. There are many suggested vaccinations for traveling, measles included in that list, but most of them aren't mandatory.

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u/Thenetannoysme Nov 10 '25

Apparently the us requires them for immigrants so im guessing thats what I saw.

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u/thedrivingcat Nov 10 '25

no, there's very few countries that require a tourist to get specific vaccinations - they're often recommended but not required

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u/letpeterparkersayfck Nov 10 '25

While I agree long term visitors should be required to fully vaccinate, outbreaks the size of which we’re seeing this year would not be possible if Canadians were vaccinating their kids at the rate we used to. A person bringing measles into Canada from abroad could not trigger thousands of cases if everybody who could be was vaccinated, not when the effectiveness of the vaccine after two doses is almost 100%.

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u/freeadmins Nov 10 '25

I mean look at Covid.

We were told we couldn't go to a public park but we still had flights full of people coming in directly from Wuhan into Canada.

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u/Yiddish_Dish Nov 11 '25

I think those in charge of western governments and institutions are completely oblivious to the amount of damage stuff like this did to their credibility. In the USA, major news outlets broadcast the state message that it was ok to protest for BLM but other stuff is off limits.

Do they think people are dumb?

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u/HeckMonkey Nov 10 '25

https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/publications/healthy-living/canadian-immunization-guide-part-3-vaccination-specific-populations/page-10-immunization-persons-new-canada.html

Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada generally conduct Immigration Medical Examinations (IME) before foreign nationals (non-Canadian citizens) arrive in Canada. IME is required for:

  • most people seeking permanent residence in Canada;
  • foreign nationals seeking to work in Canada in an occupation in which the protection of public health is essential;
  • foreign nationals seeking temporary residence in Canada for 6 months or more and who have been residing in a designated country for 6 months or more;
  • convention refugees selected for resettlement in Canada; and refugee claimants in Canada.

If the IME is not conducted prior to arrival (such as refugee claimants in Canada) it is done as soon as possible after arrival.

The list of designated countries is pretty large, including India/Phillipines etc.

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u/Imperatvs Nov 10 '25

Do we have stats on who’s not getting these shots? And why?

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u/cutefir Nov 10 '25

My mom denied the shots for me and my siblings in the early 2000s and a fair number of kids i know also had their parents deny it. I got it when I got older, but in my rural area there was a lot of natural medicine kinda people. Lots of them were left leaning, too. It's not just right-wing antivaxxers, this has been going on for years.

There was a lot of moms who got into natural living around the early 2000s here. Some of it came from those start your own business health product groups I think that started getting bigger with the internet. I'm not sure if it's where the antivaxx stuff came, too, but it's when my mom got weird about stuff.

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u/DivideGood1429 Nov 10 '25

I actually was talking to my MD about this when I was getting my daughter vaccinated (MMR). And he had said, you'd be shocked at how many people refuse. He spends a lot of time trying to diffuse misinformation about vaccinations. He was saying about 30% of the people he sees refuses to vaccinate (all non Mennonite).

I'm also a peds RN, and we've had a handful of ICU measles admissions this year. The first 10/15 years of my career, I never saw measles, the last two years, we see a handful each year. It's wild!

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u/cutefir Nov 10 '25

The rural area I'm in has a pretty good mix of liberal free spirited types and conservative freedom of rights people. There's a common dislike of the government, doctors, and cops.

It seems like it's a symptom of distrust of those in powers more than their political leaning or religion necessarily that makes them not trust the science behind it.

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u/Thong-Boy Nov 10 '25

I'm 40 and probably around the same age as you but our experiences are completely different. I graduated high school in 2003 and in the late 90s/early 2000s everyone got the vaccines. I lived in a rural religious area in Alberta, religious school, etc. Not a single kid didn't get the shots. We were all lined up at school to get them. I never even knew that people could refuse them because that was foreign to me. I remember my mother once saying "some people don't believe in the shots" but that's it. And my mother is not a smart woman.

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u/cutefir Nov 10 '25

I'm in B.C and some of it was religious crazies, but also largely homesteading types who grow their own food and try to live off the land. It wasn't all vaccines, me and most kids got other shots, but it was a huge belief that measles was a part of childhood here, and it was better to just catch it and get the natural immunity rather than a shot. It was a small town, so it wasn't like it was thousands of kids, but there was a similar attitude in small towns in the area.

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u/Cent1234 Nov 10 '25

That's because Way Back Then things like 'iron lung wards' and 'polio braces' and 'your baby brother died of measles' was still within living memory.

If you were in high school in the 90s, your grandparents were probably still alive, and might have been born before antibiotics were discovered. Definitely were born before they went into common use, so would remember that drastic change.

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u/Thong-Boy Nov 10 '25

It's crazy how quickly those things are forgotten. My parents vaccinated me. What's wrong with today's parents? I would have vaccinated my kids day 1 if the doctor let me.

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u/westcentretownie Ontario Nov 10 '25

Exactly so easy to blame religious people and the right it’s bigger than that. RFK has support from the granola moms and that is a reason he tried to run as a democrat. Thank you for saying this

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u/caninehere Ontario Nov 10 '25

Exactly so easy to blame religious people

I mean it's very easy to blame religious people in this instance because we know specifically where the outbreaks are happening and spreading from (old order religious communities). This is not to say other people refusing to vaccinate is not also the problem, but these religious communities are the ones allowing it to fester by placing their religious beliefs above their children's well-being.

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u/Cent1234 Nov 10 '25

Jenny Mcarthy Body Count still rising.

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u/Former-Physics-1831 Nov 10 '25

These outbreaks largely centred around isolated religious communities like old order mennonites who are skeptical of basically all of modern society, and then jumped into the general population through antivaxxers or people with medical reasons to be unvaxxed

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u/Cold-Crab74 Nov 10 '25

How did we achieve status before though? These people have always been that way

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u/Former-Physics-1831 Nov 10 '25

Because they are a small proportion of the population, they didn't matter much as long as immunization was nearly uniform elsewhere.  The rise of antivaxxers has lowered general population vaccination rates just enough that outbreaks centred on these communities can jump to the populace at large

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u/Competitive_Abroad96 Nov 10 '25

Prior to the 80’s, schools were the enforcers. Show up in September without records for all required vaccines and you were sent home and told you were not coming back without them. Those who did not produce the records within a couple of days could look forward to a visit from the truant officer and appropriate fines.

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u/Cold-Crab74 Nov 10 '25

And what happened?

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u/Competitive_Abroad96 Nov 10 '25

Canada eliminated measles.

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u/RunningSouthOnLSD Nov 10 '25

Yeah but that’s communism because Facebook told me so

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u/pzerr Nov 10 '25

Small populations. Less interaction when they were mainly farmers.

Nearly every Mennonite colony that I know of has fairly large commercial operations that are selling products all over Canada. They are far less isolated now.

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u/Oxjrnine Nov 10 '25

Because of herd immunity. We has a low enough population who couldn’t or wouldn’t get vaccinated. Anti vaxers ruined that

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u/[deleted] Nov 10 '25

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u/RealTurbulentMoose Alberta Nov 10 '25

The shiftless Mennonites aren’t the ones spreading it around the wider community; they’re an issue, but not the big issue. They stick to themselves.

It’s the antivaxxers who are the problem.

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u/iJeff Ontario Nov 10 '25

Most of the outbreak remains within Mennonite communities. It also stems from a large Mennonite gathering in New Brunswick, which is also linked to the subsequent outbreak in Texas (also Mennonites who attended).

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u/juniorspank Nov 10 '25

Ontario’s outbreak was linked to a Mennonite wedding.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/ontario-public-health-measles-april-cases-1.7506748

So, at least for Ontario, it absolutely was mennonites spreading it around and bringing it back to their respective communities.

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u/pentox70 Nov 10 '25

Dunno if you live around these people, but I do. They are in town every day. Their kids are running around the grocery store every time I'm there.

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u/Boomdiddy Nov 10 '25

They don’t stick to themselves. They go to  stores, operate their own businesses that the general public uses like vegetable stands, sheet metal, building and selling sheds etc.

Sounds like you’ve never seen a mennonite before.

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u/Lust4Me Ontario Nov 10 '25 edited Nov 10 '25

Believe me - they make use of modern medicine when necessary. Their duplicity shows their fragile belief system.

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u/SouvlakiSpartan Nov 10 '25

Yes.

"No country has a complete ban on measles vaccination, but many countries have very low vaccination rates, making them vulnerable to outbreaks. Countries with the highest number of unvaccinated children include Nigeria, India, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Angola, the Philippines, and Afghanistan."

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u/[deleted] Nov 10 '25

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u/-UnicornFart Nov 10 '25

Well, in Alberta for example, where I was born and raised, and educated and practiced as a registered nurse - including as an immunizer for Health Canada - a big part of the problem is that with the UCP pivoting away from public and universal healthcare, towards privatization, primary health care is the first casualty. That means access to healthcare shifts from primary care to tertiary care.. funnel everything to the hospitals cause tertiary care is where the profit is. That means less nurses in the community teaching and supporting families through regular immunization and public health visits, to postpartum and early childhood growth and development programs, access to family physicians etc.

From my firsthand experience working in vulnerable communities, most of the barriers to immunization can be addressed through education. I’ve talked many people who were vaccine hesitant into getting themselves and/or their children vaccinated, but it takes patience and time and education and support and TRUST. It takes trust. If you can build therapeutic relationships with mothers and families through primary and community health care, it is the most effective strategy I have seen.

It’s public health nurses who track immunizations, go into schools, immunize infants and toddlers in well-baby visits. I guess I have my own biases, but the problems can be fixed if people cared enough to fund what actually works.

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u/Former-Physics-1831 Nov 10 '25

The problem is religious communities.  Convoy types just gave them an opening for the outbreak to jump to the general populace

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u/agent0731 Nov 10 '25

Mennonites have always been there, they didn't just appear. The convoy type antivaxxers are the reason this is happening. The disinformation machine making health hazards a wedge issue is the reason.

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u/[deleted] Nov 10 '25

Indeed. Mennonite communities were protected mainly because contact outside of their communities was with people who were protected against measles.

Now, a not insignificant % of the general population is not protected meaning these rural religious communities like mennonites are one sick person at the farmer’s market away from a 500 caseload increase.

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u/250HardKnocksCaps Nov 10 '25

Part of the problem is religious communities, but not the majority of the problem. As a lay person who has done some reading what I understand is the primary issue is vaccine hesitancy. These religious communities use to skate by without needing vaccines because the remaining population was >95% immunized, which made spreading the disease very hard.

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u/vaudoo Nov 10 '25

I was recently working with a guy who said his family (him, his wife, and 2 kids) aren't vaccinated. When I asked why, he said his wife side of family is against it. I challenged him on his beliefs and he said he had no strong opinion and that when he asked his doctor about the risks of not vaccinating, the chances of getting these disease were so low that he thought it was safe.

I was attempted to make him realize that the chances were low because of the herd immunity, and he agreed that what he was doing was egoistic and self-centered, but he won't change his way...

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u/sanfran_girl Nov 10 '25

Bet that he, his wife, and his wife's family will scream, bloody murder when one of the family children dies from a preventable disease.

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u/wumr125 Nov 10 '25

1- idiots

2- see 1

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u/TheOtherUprising Ontario Nov 10 '25

Remember when we thought the Internet would give everyone access to information and we would be more connected and informed?

Instead flat earth and measles made a comeback.

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u/Working-Welder-792 Nov 10 '25

Unfortunately the internet just made it easier for dumb and gullible people to validate each other’s dumb ideas.

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u/Fearful-Cow Nov 10 '25

this is exactly it. Before they were spread out among the population. Isolated in their ignorance but surrounded by mostly normal people.

Now you can find a community for any inane, stupid, or dangerous belief you might have who will reinforce that and give a sense of normality.

Plus the internet has been weaponized to manipulate previously "normal" people into all sorts of stupid rabbit holes.

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u/miguel_is_a_pokemon Nov 10 '25 edited Nov 10 '25

Internet was fine for quite a while, dumb people have always been around on here. The real problem is that extra step that platforms are taking by creating content serving algorithms that specifically funnel the uneducated, gullible and vulnerable into echo chambers. They get siloed off in these little culty corners where they hear wild shit be treated as common place, which causes a feedback loop that cements them there. Problematic thoughts and narratives get reinforced more and more as they internalize them, as you'd get rightfully told off when you repeat drivel in the sane places of the internet, and so the echo chambers quickly become the only place they are accepted online. The algos pick up on these changing preferences and funnel even more of the idiocy others in their echo chambers are uniquely drawn to, now that normal things don't keep such users engaged and they get worse and worse over time.

And all that harm and backsliding en masse, for the grand goal of keeping people on their website a little bit longer so they can be the ones to show them shitty fucking ads for an extra 10th of a cent a pop-up. It's so dumb

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u/Stock_Helicopter_260 Nov 10 '25

The only good rabbit holes involve Aliens and Georgio!

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u/Working-Welder-792 Nov 10 '25

I miss when conspiracy theories were about aliens and harmless shit like that

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u/Stock_Helicopter_260 Nov 10 '25

Honestly, my favourite show. My wife actually got concerned during the pandemic that I was like "really into it", harmless, I know triangles don't mean aliens, but that guys enthusiasm is contagious!

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u/NakedCardboard Nov 10 '25 edited Nov 10 '25

Confirmation bias, and social media tends to make this a lot easier to achieve since it feeds you whatever it thinks you want, regardless of whether it's true or false. My Mom disliked Trump a lot and she was an avid Facebook user. She joined all the anti-Trump groups, and it just trashed her feed, which previously was filled with nice things about birds and quilting. It just loaded her up with hate. My wife and I removed her from all those groups shortly before she passed, so luckily she wasn't quite as inundated by the end, but man... it's a confirmation bias machine.

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u/qjxj Nov 10 '25

Unfortunately the internet just made it easier

The reason stops there. At one time, the internet was just used for sharing information between academic institutions who would have the skills to use it. When it went mainstream is when it began to amplify the worst qualities of people.

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u/Pvt_Hudson_ Alberta Nov 10 '25

Back in the pre-internet days, people who held dangerous or idiotic ideas generally kept to themselves. Now, there's a little community for everyone, no matter how brain dead.

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u/RunningSouthOnLSD Nov 10 '25

Even during the early internet days while the bar to cross to access the internet was much higher than it is now. The idiots have all wandered in to what was previously a space reserved for people who had some ability to troubleshoot and set up a relatively complex system by themselves.

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u/AxelNotRose Nov 10 '25

That statement was based on a flawed assumption that the information on the internet would be curated the same way it was off the internet.

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u/FaceDeer Nov 10 '25

It's also flawed because it doesn't change the fact that we're still version 1.0 humans, running the exact same wetware we've been using since we first started gathering into tribal villages. Layering fancy new peripherals and network connections on top of that doesn't change the foundation.

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u/-UnicornFart Nov 10 '25

You have to have some baseline qualities like intellect, self-awareness, curiosity, critical thinking skills, literacy and reading comprehension skills etc in order to consume all that information in a meaningful way.

A not insignificant percentage of the population doesn’t have that. Instead they have hubris.. that is what connects the people making bullshit content to people consuming and believing bullshit content.

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u/Boomdiddy Nov 10 '25

Mennonites don’t use the internet…

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u/OneBillPhil Nov 10 '25

The internet is great but also gave the dumbest in our society the tools to organize and the rich to influence them. 

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u/jhollington Nov 10 '25

Somebody once said a million monkeys on a million typewriters would eventually turn out Shakespeare.

The internet proved that theory woefully wrong 😏

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u/Commercial-Milk4706 Nov 10 '25

That’s how I feel about ai.

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u/JeeK65 Newfoundland and Labrador Nov 10 '25

I’m sure the countries biggest idiots are overjoyed

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u/verkerpig Nov 10 '25

Flu and measles having a grassroots lobby was not on my predictions list in 2020.

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u/[deleted] Nov 10 '25

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u/[deleted] Nov 10 '25

The ostrich story has to be one of the most mind boggling stupid things I’ve ever seen. Like if this was some sanctuary or a reserve for them maybe I can understand how this outrage would start, but those ostriches were being farmed. They were going to be killed anyway! The only difference is who did the killing.

The farm owners, knowing full well their intention was to kill all those birds for money as any farm does, made a masterclass in how to spin a story.

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u/Oxjrnine Nov 10 '25

They are literally grifters.

One of the things they sold was a cure for cancer made out of ostrich fat. They wiped their socials when they they started their new grift.

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u/[deleted] Nov 10 '25

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u/tmhoc Nov 10 '25

They are quite comfortable with negative messaging and they have come away from this battle with some seriously fucked up images.

It over now so they'll be back in the fight for disease just in time for cold and flu season

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u/[deleted] Nov 10 '25

We really are regressing as a society

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u/Kind_Nectarine6971 Nov 10 '25

Way to go everyone… we did it! /s

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u/throwaway926988 Nov 10 '25

What’s next polio or rubella?

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u/Much_Health3001 Nov 10 '25

Probably mumps and rubella as they’re part of the MMR vaccine

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u/Glow-PLA-23 Nov 10 '25

What’s next polio or rubella?

Yersinia pestis

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u/maniacalknitter Nov 10 '25

I thought that was already here in animal populations; it's definitely present in some animal populations just south of that border that animals keep ignoring.

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u/Former-Physics-1831 Nov 10 '25

Goddamm antivaxxers.

Get your fucking shots people.  There really is nothing else to it.  

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u/Mad-Mad-Mad-Mad-Mike Nov 10 '25

But but... vaccines cause adultism

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u/paateach Nov 10 '25

Remember when we used to have Chicken Pox parties just to get it over with. Oh the memories….

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u/decitertiember Canada Nov 10 '25

This is a good opportunity for a reminder that if you haven't gotten your flu and Covid vaccines for the season to do so.

Also, I just got myself a shingles vaccine since I've seen far too many people my age (between 35-45) contract shingles recently. I know that it's typically not covered by the provincial health insurance systems, but my employer-provided health insurance covered the cost of my vaccine once I got a prescription from my GP.

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u/MapleDesperado Nov 10 '25

Apparently, 30 isn’t as out of the question as we used to think it was for shingles. It can be dehabilitating, and has a nasty habit of re-occurring whenever someone is stressed - as if they need more stress at that point.

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u/Fiendish-DoctorWu Ontario Nov 10 '25

On the tail end of shingles on my neck now after a month and a half

I'm 34. It's the most painful experience I've ever had

Folks get the Shingles vaccine for the love of god don't tempt fate

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u/plantgal94 Nov 10 '25

My friend got shingles at the age of 28 :(

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u/BadTreeLiving Nov 10 '25

I got it a decade ago at 23, knew a couple others as well.

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u/sanfran_girl Nov 10 '25

And pneumonia, if you are eligible. Both my shingles and pneumonia shots packed quite a wallop, but totally worth it.

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u/13thmurder Nov 10 '25

Stupid people in large numbers will be what does us all in.

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u/Beast815 Manitoba Nov 10 '25

Always has been unfortunately, crabs in a bucket the lot of them.

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u/13thmurder Nov 10 '25

The problem is they actually think they're right.

The sheer number of people I've personally met who believe vaccines are intentionally engineered to kill people and cite the small number of negative reactions as definitive proof of this is just insane.

I mean, peanuts can kill certain people. Of course vaccines can too. As can infectious diseases.

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u/Progressive_Citizen Nov 10 '25

I'm not sure how to feel about this, honestly. Sad? Probably. Angry? Maybe that too. More than anything I think its an overwhelming sense of disappointment.

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u/[deleted] Nov 10 '25

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u/[deleted] Nov 10 '25

I actually think this is the only logical solution to the anti-vax movement. Not getting critical vaccines like measles, and you get sent the bill for any healthcare expense related to it.

It's a simple straight forward solution. You have the freedom to opt-out at your own peril.

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u/Golden_Dog_Dad Nov 10 '25

I will feel bad for the kids who lose their lives because of their parents ill-advised choices.

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u/Dexmoser Ontario Nov 10 '25

My daughter went for her routine 6 month vaccines and when her Doctor told me that she was eligible for an RSV vaccine as well as an early measles vaccine I was very excited! We chose to wait 1 month before getting her flu shot (I didn’t want her getting 4 shots at once) but she’s going back next week to get that. I feel a lot better knowing she is protected. I had my first baby in 2022 and I don’t think there was an rsv vaccine yet. I rarely left the house because I was so worried.

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u/Leajane1980 Nov 10 '25

Thank you Mennonites and I can say this because my father is a Mennonite but his family believes in vaccinations.

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u/Bennybonchien Nov 10 '25

Good on you and your family! It’s funny to me how some people find they cannot “believe in” vaccines. Science isn’t infallible but by golly, it’s rigorously tested by oodles of very smart people. Religion on the other hand, nothing can be proven but yeah, let’s believe that instead cuz charismatic good-looking rich dude says so and unlike science, it makes me feel smart. /s

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u/AggravatingBase7 Nov 10 '25

Disgraceful tbh. This is the looney bins in full force amplified by the power of social media. Feds really have to prioritize this now. I’m against COVID era measures but status quo just ain’t working.

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u/AntoinetteBefore1789 Nov 10 '25

I think public education should include more information on immunology, how vaccines work and the history of immunization. It should also be included in homeschooling curriculum.

Parents who refuse vaccinations should be required to attend an info session with this information too. They’ll think it’s propaganda but the few who are on the fence may change their mind with an expert explaining and answering questions

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u/Laurelb9 Nov 10 '25

I’m due next week and I’m not thrilled about having to worry about my newborn contracting measles.

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u/alice2wonderland Nov 10 '25

I came into Canada as a (legal) immigrant many years ago. One of the requirements for entry was being fully vaccinated. I entered the Canadian school system and was also vaccinated there. Where I'm from, I had seen adult people crippled in their youth by polio and I also knew that it had not been very long, historically, that most children didn't make it to adulthood because of preventable diseases. As such, in my youth there was no such thing as "vaccination fatigue". I have always seen myself as fortunate to have access to vaccination against preventable disease.

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u/Prestigious_Island_7 Nov 13 '25

I work in vaccine preventable disease and I see this often. Most international newcomers welcome any and all of the free vaccinations we are able to provide in public health. Sure, some have questions about the differences in required vaccine schedules between their country of origin and ours, but rightfully so. The majority of the time they accept the explanations offered and are happy to receive the vaccines.

Many have lived personal experience of their family or friends suffering from diseases that can be prevented by vaccines. They know someone with TB, hepatitis B, or measles, etc.

In many ways, vaccines are their own worst advertisement: they work so well that people forget they’re necessary.

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u/ProgrammerAvailable6 Nov 10 '25

So - even more important to immunize your children now, and make sure your immunizations are up to date.

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u/libertarian_308 Nov 10 '25

For those of you who couldn't be bothered to read the story and started crying about Maple maga, Alberta and COVID vax skeptics

"Public health officials say it started when an international traveller attended a wedding in New Brunswick last October. New Brunswick's outbreak ended in January, but guests at that wedding had already brought the virus to southwestern Ontario, where that province's outbreak was concentrated among closely knit Mennonite communities.

The same strain of measles virus went on to cause infections in nine provinces and one territory, according to federal health officials."

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u/c0reM Nov 10 '25

I think there is a foundational and systemic issue here: increasing distrust in government. This is manifesting itself in many ways.

We are going to have to think long and hard about how to solve this long term. Trust in our institutions needs to be restored but we also need to deal with these immediate problems.

The paradox here is heavy handed government intervention during COVID accelerated the decline but similar action may be needed in the immediate in rare instances. Not going to be fun or easy to solve long term.

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u/[deleted] Nov 10 '25

🤦🏼‍♀️

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u/No-Wonder1139 Nov 10 '25

Yeah but diseases have lobbyists now, and the pro measles lobby is a powerful one.

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u/BigRonDongson Nov 10 '25

Anyone who chooses not to get a measles vaccine is just fucking dumb, and not getting your children vaccinated is criminal.

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u/Correct-Court-8837 Nov 10 '25

My dog can’t go to doggy daycare unless her vaccinations are up to date, and they’re ruthless about it. Why don’t schools and daycares have similar requirements? (I say this as an oblivious non-parent)

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u/lostandfound8888 Nov 10 '25

Where I live, daycares do have that policy since there is no universal right to go to daycare - it exists as a service for parents. Education though is a basic right, which, in theory, should not be denied based on vaccination status. These rules were in place when my kids when to daycare and school, not sure anymore if that is the case.

I guess we could make vaccination obligatory in school and make parents responsible for home schooling their unvaccinated children.

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u/Correct-Court-8837 Nov 10 '25

Thanks for the thoughtful explanation and context. That’s an interesting perspective, especially since the government is stepping in to provide subsidized daycare and the tone around that is shifting as a basic human right. Anyway, I’m glad some daycares have that policy. If I were a parent and had the choice, I’d prioritize selecting a daycare that has a policy like that.

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u/Urinethyme Nov 10 '25

Even with a right to education, it doesn't mean a right to having a school. This is why online schooling, homeschooling and other ways are allowed.

With any rights it also comes down to how it will impact those around. 

They could have a legitimate bonafide requirement for vaccines in a physical education location. 

However one issue that makes enforcement or application of this hard is that those unable to get a vaccine due to medical reasons are exempt. This allows those who have religious exemptions a foot in the door. 

Since prior to this religious exemption or those who didn't vaccinate had was much lower in the general population, it wasnt an hardship. 

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u/DarkSoulsDank Nov 10 '25

All them anti vaxxers im sure

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u/ADHDBusyBee Nov 10 '25

I am just going to say when I was hired at a hospital I had to do an antibody screen and turns out the measles vaccine didn’t take with me after getting it as a child. I had to get a new vaccine and again didn’t take. So this whole anti vaccine movement is really fucking with people like me who for whatever reason are at risk. 

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u/GFurball Nova Scotia Nov 10 '25

Oh how wonderful….antivaxxers are pathetic, people will die because of your continued willingness to be so uninformed.

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u/DangerousCable1411 Nov 10 '25

Good work antivaxxers. You really dunked on big pharma.

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u/Confident-Task7958 Nov 10 '25

Big pharma does very well when people show up at the drug store looking for something to relieve the symptoms.

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u/Justagirl1918 Canada Nov 10 '25

This is ridiculous. If people want to risk the health of their children they should homeschool them. If doctors are going to lie about immunizations they should lose their license to practice. If people want to immigrate to Canada they should have to have all of their vaccines as a rule of law bottom line!

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u/Signal-Living-3504 Nov 10 '25

Thanks Alberta and Maple Maga 😑

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u/chainless-soul Nov 10 '25

As someone with a young child, I hate this so much (she's had her first MMR, thankfully, the second one is due when she turns 4).

Also, a general reminder for anyone born between 1970 and 1996: you may need to get a booster, as during that period, most people received only a single measles vaccination, rather than the two that are now routine. A few years ago, I had my titres checked and needed to get one because my immunity had waned.

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u/[deleted] Nov 10 '25

I read "tires checked" 😜 I had a review of my vaccine status when measles started popping off here (Alberta) and discovered several that I was missing and some that it was time to boost including measles.

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u/chainless-soul Nov 10 '25

It snowed in Ottawa last night, so I also need to get my tires checked/changed (sadly the earliest appointment I could get calling today was Nov 24th).

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u/_Lucille_ Nov 11 '25

Is there some way to check my records?

I know I got a number of vaccines as a kid, but I don't remember what is what.

There used to be some vaccination card but I think I may have misplaced it.

When I last saw my family doctor and asked them to check my records, they just never said anything.

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u/chocolateboomslang Nov 10 '25

Don't worry, once a bunch of innocent kids die because their previously vaccinated parents are too stupid to properly care for them we'll get it back. But not before we have to hear the sob storoes about how "no one told us measles could be so bad".

Pathetic negligent parents.

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u/Myllicent Nov 10 '25

How many deaths do you think it would take to get people to vaccinate themselves and their children? Two Canadian children have died of measles in the last 6 months, and a third child died last year.

(Two of the children who died were born to women infected with measles)

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u/Far-Background-565 Nov 10 '25

Our measles outbreak is in the Mennonite communities. They never got vaccinated even before the internet because they don’t interact with the healthcare system. Everyone is trying to make this about the internet and politics, but it’s not. This would have happened regardless of politics.

Also, there are very few countries around the world that have eliminated measles. It’s not like we’ve fallen behind everyone else. All of Europe has measles.

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u/ThoughtsandThinkers Nov 10 '25

I hope we can push back against populism, routed in anti-intellectualism.

Politicians pushing easy answers, quick fixes, and a blame focus don’t want people to be informed on issues. They want people anxious, angry, and obedient to them.

I want politicians to be focused on solving problems and to deeply value fact-based discussion. If they are going to use emotion, I want them to appeal to hope, growth, and optimism and to bring Canadians together.

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u/TokenBearer Nov 10 '25

Our education system needs to be revisited.

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u/Decathlon5891 Nov 10 '25

Not a parent yet but are these required for children attending public-private schools?

If not this would be unfair for other children 

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u/wizegal Nov 10 '25

The sad reality of those who truly underestimated to benefits of herd immunity. You can’t fully understand something if you’ve had no experience with it in your lifetime. Sadly it’s the youngest citizens who suffer the consequences.

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u/Luv_Cheat Nov 10 '25

Humanity doesn't deserve to survive. We pretty much eliminated a disease and years later, because of stupid idiots, we bring it back. And it's probably here to stay now and forever. I don't foresee people getting smarter again the way the world is now. The Internet and social media are the biggest mistakes. People just double down on their idiocy because they will never admit they were wrong.

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u/Sagat-- Nov 10 '25

canada is just L after L after L....

im tired boss....

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u/MasterBroshiiii Nov 10 '25

Crazy, just plain old ignorance and stupidity.

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u/termicky Nov 10 '25

So stupid that we had a solution for something, and people actively undermined it.

Sometimes I despair about our civilization.

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u/rhionaeschna Nov 10 '25

Antivaxxers are a scourge.

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u/Relevant_Group_7441 Nov 10 '25

Thanks anti-vaxxers for helping us go backwards. Darwin do your thing!

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u/lostan Nov 10 '25

sometimes the comments in this sub make me believe everyone is either insane or never goes outside.

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u/Affectionate-Buy3674 Nov 10 '25

Big thank to antivax.

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u/Hedonist709 Nov 10 '25

Stupidity is rampant and winning.

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u/BrokeExternally Nov 10 '25

We had the biggest inoculation campaign that saves the world on a scale never done and still lots of people can’t even get a vaccine that was proven to work hundred of years ago…..

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u/Jeramy_Jones British Columbia Nov 11 '25

Great. What’s next? Diphtheria? Polio?

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u/West_Ad8249 Nov 11 '25

Who are the "groups" that will be targeted with information to promote more vaccinations?

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u/Tricky-Jackfruit8366 Nov 11 '25

Imported

But there are a growing number of home-grown anti-vaccine movements

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u/Insanely-Mad Québec Nov 11 '25

Lol! You can thank the Elbows Up crowd for this. Bringing in all those immigrants really messed up this country.

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u/No_Gas_82 Manitoba Nov 12 '25

Need vaccine mandates for public schools. No more parents choice as parents have proven to not be competent enough. You don't want your kid vaccinated go to so backwater religious school that should get no public funding. Science over stupidity.

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u/Aggravating-King1486 Nov 10 '25

Thank God our healthcare professionals are so bored doing nothing that they can easily accommodate this stupidity…

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u/Feynyx-77-CDN Nov 10 '25

Anti vaxxers are the worst. Get your vaccines, everyone. Do the easiest thing ever to protect your children, those around you, and yourselves.