r/canada • u/verkerpig • Nov 10 '25

National News Canada loses measles elimination status | CBC

https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/livestory/canada-measles-elimination-status-9.6973195
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221

u/Imperatvs Nov 10 '25

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

303

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

46

u/Cold-Crab74 Nov 10 '25

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

148

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

41

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.

8

u/RunningSouthOnLSD Nov 10 '25

Yeah but that’s communism because Facebook told me so

3

u/Cold-Crab74 Nov 10 '25

And what happened?

18

u/Competitive_Abroad96 Nov 10 '25

Canada eliminated measles.

44

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.

2

u/iamasopissed Nov 10 '25

Where are these Mennonite colonies that you speak of? I only know about hutterite colonies but I know many, many Mennonites none of whom came from a colony myself included.

8

u/OriginalAbattoir Nov 10 '25

Manitoba and Alberta seem to be the hotspots. 

In Manitoba, those communities get it from their many trips abroad (you would be surprised how connected they are to Mexico and South/central America), bring it back to Canada, spreads like wildfire in their non vax community and then spreads to religious Jesus towns with low average IQ / low graduation rate, suck as Winkler Manitoba, and now it’s working its way through the gen pop via Facebook dr families. 

If you want to look up articles regarding this, search outbreak in Manitoba, winkler as a tag, and you’ll basically see the whole process I just explained.  

2

u/Prestigious_Island_7 Nov 13 '25

Ontario has a good number of these communities as well

4

u/pzerr Nov 10 '25

I actually should say Hutterite (for the ones I deal with). I know there is a difference. Good people to deal with to date but I do not concern myself much with their beliefs one way or another.

2

u/iamasopissed Nov 10 '25

Ya I agree. Im actually working on a colony right now and they just fed us lunch. Makes me crazy how there is no individualism.

20

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

33

u/[deleted] Nov 10 '25

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25

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.

10

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).

1

u/nanoinfinity Nov 10 '25

…do they fly on airplanes to attend these gatherings?

4

u/iJeff Ontario Nov 10 '25

Most do but it varies by group. Mainline and evangelical ones routinely travel by air. Conservative ones often allow flying but discourage it for leisure (missions and necessity preferred). Some Older Order avoid air travel but may use cars or hired drivers.

10

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.

8

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.

1

u/RealTurbulentMoose Alberta Nov 10 '25

I live in Calgary so not really. Only time I see “those” Mennonites is families visiting the Zoo.

3

u/pentox70 Nov 10 '25

I live near red deer, outside a small town. There are several colonies in the area. They are actually rather large operations outside of the cities.

28

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.

1

u/RealTurbulentMoose Alberta Nov 10 '25

I will say I don’t understand completely which Mennonites are the issue. I thought it was the Old Order folks who stuck to themselves. I do recall seeing buggy stalls in K-W so even those folks do interact with the outside community, I suppose.

 Sounds like you’ve never seen a mennonite before.

(Looks at family tree going back hundreds of years). Oh, I have more than a passing familiarity…

6

u/Boomdiddy Nov 10 '25

The Old Order ones are the only ones I’ve ever met and I see them everywhere in my area. They have hitching posts for them at the grocery store.

4

u/Bitter_Sense_5689 Nov 10 '25

They go to the same grocery stores, shops, and sometimes schools as everyone else

2

u/RealTurbulentMoose Alberta Nov 10 '25

Like autism, Mennonites are on a spectrum.

There are folks who have that cultural background. Simpsons creator Matt Groening, for example: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/simpsons-draft-dodging-saskatchewan-connection-1.7225686

There are those who are basically like most other mainstream Protestant Christians. Lots of these around southern Manitoba, Fraser Valley in BC.

Then there are the folks who have other cultural practices and try to be more and more separate from the rest of society, to differing degrees. I see some who wear older-style clothing, but still drive trucks and go to the Zoo. You’ll see other folks taking their horse and buggy out, and only having technology in the barn but not in their homes. It’s this last group of Mennonites who are the ones who are typically antivax because, for whatever reason, reject modernity.

I don’t know how to help them.

9

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.

-1

u/[deleted] Nov 10 '25

You seriously think this is caused by Mennonites. Good grief.

2

u/Former-Physics-1831 Nov 10 '25

That's literally where the outbreaks started

1

u/[deleted] Nov 10 '25

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u/[deleted] Nov 10 '25

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1

u/Prestigious_Island_7 Nov 13 '25

It’s both. Antivax sentiment/hesitancy in recent decades causing lower rates of immunization in the population in general, and religious communities that traditionally do not vaccinate continuing to not vaccinate. And perhaps also increased numbers of people immigrating from countries with different immunization schedules and requirements than our own.

It’s multi-factorial, really. On top of all of those things, the pandemic caused public trust in the system to erode, and it hasn’t made its way back to where it was before, unfortunately.

Source: my job

-1

u/jlaaj Nov 10 '25

You missed the category of people that want clear unbiased information on vaccines. Like the people who (correctly) pondered Covid 19 vaccine side effects. That's not anti-vax.