“As an infectious diseases specialist I never would have guessed this was going to happen because measles is supposed to be eradicated.”
“As an infectious diseases specialist I never would have guessed this was going to happen because measles is supposed to be eradicated.”
Ugh. I really wish they’d say who is getting infected and why they aren’t vaccinated. Not because I want to stigmatize the group, but so we can fucking understand why public health seems to be falling apart.
In Ontario, many of the measles sufferers were Mennonites who refused vaccination before it was cool. Is that the case in Alberta?
When I looked into it a couple weeks ago, most (?all) of Alberta infections were also among the unvaccinated Mennonites. In Texas and New Mexico, it spread between different unvaccinated Mennonite communities through meetings for worship and homeschooling, then spread fractionally among those who had contact with the infected Mennonite communities. I imagine the spread pattern is similar in Alberta and Ontario.
deleted by creator
the 90s/2000s antivax is now in the second generation
Conservative religious groups, and Mennonites are part of that, already have a strong distrust of government. They were targeted, ridiculed and ostracized when the covid vaccines came out and that did nothing to reassure them that the gov is looking out for their best interest, so this latest outbreak isn’t going to make them suddenly swing toward being pro vaccines. If anything they’re going to pull back even more which is why we have such a huge measles outbreak. Its not going to change easily as the mistrust runs deep.
And its no wonder - there were Amish people (a related group) who were charged for not getting a covid vaccine passport and had to go to court to argue that their faith doesnt allow them to use that kind of technology. They DID win their case and the charges were dropped but once again the distrust in gov grows.
ps. Just a correction but the Mennonites actually came from Europe, followers of Menno Simons who who was a former Catholic priest who was excommunicated for his reformational ideas. We settled in Mexico, the US and Canada after running from persecution so this mistrust in gov is a deeply held part of culture. Some Mennos are still quite conservative, others are quite liberal and you couldn’t tell them from any other Canadian.