Only 7 in 10 Ontario kids vaccinated against measles, rates falling elsewhere. Here's why
Public confidence in vaccines has dipped since COVID's first surges, the proportion of parents 'really against' routine childhood immunizations has grown and one third of Canadians believe the discredited claim that the measles vaccine causes autism, surveys show.
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That percolating pushback is contributing to gaps in immunization coverage: only seven out of 10 kids aged seven in Ontario were reported to be fully immunized against measles in the 2023-24 school year. Rates plummeted below 50 per cent in some health units, despite catch-up programs to deal with a backlog of children who missed shots during COVID disruptions.
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The gaps threaten to widen and feed a resurgence of vaccine-preventable diseases like the ongoing outbreak of measles, say those who study the phenomenon.
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But vaccine hesitancy goes beyond autism. The motives of parents opting out are 'often far more complex and nuanced than the pro-side would like to admit,' according to the authors of a recently-published paper on English-speaking Canada's growing anti-vaccine movement.
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It may make for a quicker and easier narrative to say it's all about misinformation and a notoriously flawed study that was eventually withdrawn, 'and convince people that it was a mistake and that there is nothing to be concerned about,' said co-author and University of Guelph historian Catherine Carstairs.
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However, 'it's become much grittier and more complicated, and maybe requires different kinds of interventions,' she said.
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Growing vaccine hesitancy, and outright refusal, is also symbolic of a broader issue, said the University of Alberta's Timothy Caulfield — 'the rise of an anti-science ethos that is impacting society.'
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The controversies and polarizations surrounding the COVID vaccines also had an ideological spillover effect on vaccines more generally, Caulfield said. In the U.S., political liberals became more positive towards non-COVID shots like MMR (measles, mumps and rubella), influenza and chickenpox while conservatives became more negative.
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Ontario has now claimed more measles cases since last fall than all of the United States. So far, the majority have been concentrated in specific health units, but measles is so highly infectious it can easily leak out to vulnerable pockets with less-than-optimal vaccination rates.
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As criticism of Ontario's handling of the outbreak intensifies, Premier Doug Ford Wednesday said getting children vaccinated against measles is a 'no-brainer' and that the province has sufficient supplies of vaccines available. 'I encourage anyone and everyone,' Ford told reporters. 'You need to get your kids vaccinated, because if not it just starts spreading.'
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'I'm happy that (local public health units) are able to keep the numbers to 100 to 150 Ontarians that are getting infected on a weekly basis. To me that's tremendous, hard and difficult work,' he told Radio-Canada.
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