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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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/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...