opinion

This week, Canada lost its measles elimination status.

It is easy to be angry that Canada has lost its hard-won status as a country where measles has been eradicated. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) declaration to that effect this week is an embarrassment. Failing to prevent a measles outbreak that killed two infants explodes the comfortable conceit about Canada being a modern developed country. It also resurfaces old antagonisms about anti-vaxxers and misinformation.

But anger is the wrong response. The correct response is to seize the moment to increase rates of vaccination for childhood diseases that had been stagnating or falling well before COVID-19. The outbreak over the past 12 months contains useful lessons about how even a small vulnerability in the armour

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