Braid: Alberta hit by measles comparison with U.S., but all Canada is an epidemic in waiting
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Alberta does have a very serious measles problem, some of it caused by the UCP government's ambiguity about vaccination.
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But so does nearly everybody else. Vaccination rates are dangerously low across the country. Escaping a big infection cluster like Alberta's is largely dumb luck.
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Dr. Isaac Bogoch, infectious disease specialist at the University of Toronto, says 'all across Canada, there are pockets of communities with lower vaccination rates.
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'That's what we saw with the big outbreak in southwestern Ontario.'
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Now, that's a story. Alberta has more measles than a country with 100 times our population.
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The stated American number is almost certainly far too low. Vaccination rates in many states are below Canada's.
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President Donald Trump is busily dismantling national standards and agencies. Who's counting as they lose their jobs?
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What matters is how we're doing here at home. And it's a dismal picture nearly everywhere, especially for children.
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Here are vaccination rates by province for the crucial category of kids age seven or under:
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Manitoba: 65.4 per cent
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Ontario: 70 per cent
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Alberta: 71.6 per cent
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B.C.: 72.4 per cent
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Saskatchewan: 87.4 per cent.
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Bogoch says, 'Even if you add 10 per cent to most of those, it's still too low.'
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Only Saskatchewan, the vaccination rock star, would pass the 95 per cent target for creating mass immunity and stopping measles cold.
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Alberta vaccination rates rise with age until, by late teens, they're often over 90 per cent. But the most vulnerable are woefully under-protected.
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In most provinces vaccination rates have fallen sharply since the years before the COVID-19 pandemic.
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In Ontario, vaccination for seven year olds dropped 20 per cent during the pandemic period.
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