Interesting podcast about the measles outbreaks in Alberta and Ontario. I got:

  1. The outbreaks are primarily among unvaccinated Mennonite communities.
  2. Heard immunity (thanks to vaccination) among the general population has prevented exposures from turning into infections.
  3. Provincial health ministries are avoiding talking about Mennonites because they want to avoid stigmatization.
  4. Provincial health ministries aren’t holding regular briefings for political reasons.

But it’s a podcast (and I’m too lazy to read the transcript) so maybe I got some of that stuff wrong.

Edit: Fixed the link to the transcript. Thanks @[email protected]!

  • sbv@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
    4·
    3 days ago

    Have their vaccination rates fallen, or were they never all that well-vaccinated but were guarded by herd immunity amongst local non-Mennonites

    IIRC, previous CBC reporting indicated that the current Ontario outbreak is due to a bunch of people who travelled to NB for a wedding, which included guests from outside Canada, who had measles. It sounds like Mennonites are maintaining their longstanding anti-vax behaviour, but, in this case, they mixed with a population who had measles.

    Canada has an anti-vaccination problem. It’s wiiiiiild how quickly the alt-right in the US (and the big money, mainstream media, and social media amplifying them) have normalized unintelligent, selfish, anti-civilization behaviour like being anti-vaccination.

    The implication from the podcast is that the specific measles outbreak in southern Ontario is not due to new anti-vax behaviour, but previous anti-vax behaviour that has been around for decades. I generally agree with your statement, but it sounds like that wasn’t the cause for this outbreak.