Status loss shows breakdown in Canada’s public health systems

Canada’s loss of its measles elimination status this week is more than just an international embarrassment. It’s a sign of how badly our public health infrastructure has eroded and how far we’ve slipped in protecting one of the most basic tools of modern medicine: vaccination.

For the first time since 1998, the Pan American Health Organization no longer considers Canada measles-free. The reason? Outbreaks across several provinces have lasted more than a year, and public health officials haven’t been able to stop the virus’s spread.

That’s not because measles suddenly became more infectious. It’s because our systems — from vaccination tracking to public education — have broken down.

Experts say Canada’s fall from grace was preventable. The science hasn’t changed. What’s changed is our politics, our public health funding and the spread of misinformation that’s convinced far too many people that vaccines are something to fear.

There’s little doubt that the anti-vaccine movement, turbocharged by the pandemic, is the main driver of this crisis. But it’s not the only one.

Canada’s failure to maintain its measles-free status reflects years of under-investment in public health, the absence of a national vaccine registry, a worsening shortage of family doctors and a lack of political will to push back against dangerous misinformation about vaccines.

Public health units across Canada have been running on fumes for years. Many lost staff during the pandemic and never recovered. The result is that communities aren’t getting the outreach they need. Public health nurses can’t track down under-vaccinated families. And surveillance systems are patchy at best.

Not having a national vaccine registry makes things even worse. Many Canadians don’t know whether they or their children are fully immunized. Records are scattered across provinces, paper immunization cards get lost, and if you moved from one province to another, good luck finding your vaccination history.

That’s unacceptable in 2025.

Then there’s the primary-care crisis. Many Canadians don’t have a family doctor. Without consistent care, vaccinations fall through the cracks. Pharmacies can administer many vaccines, but not for very young children. That means kids in families without regular primary care are at higher risk of missing doses altogether.

This is what happens when governments treat primary care as a luxury instead of a foundation. If you don’t have a consistent relationship with a health-care provider, the basics — immunizations, screenings, followups — get lost.

Of course, even if every Canadian had a doctor and every province had a registry, vaccine coverage wouldn’t improve without confronting the anti-vaccine movement head-on. Public health experts have been warning for years that misinformation about vaccines is spreading faster than the viruses themselves.

Social media platforms have become megaphones for conspiracy theories about vaccines, and governments have been timid in countering them. Public health messaging, once a core function of government, has all but disappeared outside of emergency crises. And we’re now seeing the results of that misinformation.

That has to change. Ottawa and the provinces should be running aggressive, ongoing public-education campaigns — not just when there’s an outbreak, but year-round — to rebuild trust in vaccines and to remind Canadians what’s at stake.

We also need tougher enforcement of school vaccination policies. Vaccination should be the default expectation, not an optional lifestyle choice. Exemptions should only be allowed for legitimate medical reasons. Anything else puts children — and entire communities — at risk.

Achieving herd immunity against measles requires at least 95 per cent coverage. Anything less, and the virus spreads easily.

Measles isn’t some benign childhood illness — it’s one of the most contagious diseases known to humankind. It can cause pneumonia, brain swelling and even death, in extreme cases.

Getting our measles elimination status back won’t be easy. Canada must not only stop transmission of the virus for at least 12 months, but also demonstrate that it has strengthened its surveillance systems and improved its vaccination coverage.

That means investing heavily in public health infrastructure, creating a national vaccine registry (or at least improving data sharing between provinces), fixing the primary-care crisis and cracking down on misinformation and lax vaccination policies.

Canada once prided itself on being a global leader in disease prevention. Losing our measles-free status should be a wake-up call — one that reminds us what happens when complacency meets disinformation. The spread of measles will only get worse if concrete steps are not taken.

Reclaiming Canada’s measles-free status will take time, money and political courage. But more than anything, it will take a recommitment to the simple idea that science, not ideology, should guide public health.

Because when ideology wins, the virus does too.

» Tom Brodbeck is a Winnipeg Free Press columnist.