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The New York Times cherry-picked reports to imply that the Mennonites and other Anabaptists in Canada started the measles outbreak. And that a “conservative,” vaccine-skeptic province, Alberta, shows us who is the main culprit.
The Canadian outbreak in Canada is hugely disproportional to the outbreak in the United States. With a much smaller population (Canada has about 41 million people, the U.S. has about 340 million). Canada has more measles cases than the U.S.
The Times takes some unscientific, random reports about measles coming through an immigrant at a religious Mennonite gathering in the Atlantic province of New Brunswick. Its article was published July 30, 2025, as “Canada’s Measles Outbreak Exceeds Cases in the U.S.”
There are so many problems with this report, and it covers up some big headlines that should concern us all.
First, Canada does not record measles cases by religion. The doctors who reported that measles was most common among the Mennonites and other Anabaptist groups are relying on their impressions, not on a careful count. I don’t think we should disregard their impressions, but we need to dig deeper.
Canada does not record measles cases by religion
Second, most of the measles outbreaks are correlated with the number of immigrants in the area. Ontario, which has the largest outbreaks, has the largest immigrant population (51%). The Times article even tips us off by reporting that an international traveler brought the measles to the Mennonites. So, the headline could have meant, “Immigrants bring the measles to Canada.” But this conclusion is too superficial. For example. How about all the immigrants who are already vaccinated? They didn’t bring the measles… or did they?
Here we get deeper. Up to 40% of the measles cases in Canada afflict vaccinated people. What?! Should the headline read, “Measles vaccinations don’t work in Canada”? (The stats here are a little uncertain.)
40% of the measles cases in Canada afflict vaccinated people.
Third, we have to go deeper, which the health authorities in New Brunswick Province did…unreported by the Times.
One of the doctors concerned with epidemic disease in New Brunswick said that we would be superficial if we made the headline that the Menonites and other religious people were the cause of the outbreak. (That didn’t stop the Times.)
She pointed out that there are some large trends that we need to be aware of. First, vaccine-taking has been decreasing among all Canadians. Second, many Canadians got only one dose of the two-dose vaccine. Third, vaccine protection has been waning, and, the reader might say, the politically liberal Canadian government should have been stronger in advocating booster shots.
Vaccine-taking has been decreasing among all Canadians.
The first all-Canada study of measles was done a few years ago and found similar conclusions. It also added that measles seems to hit more of those people who are above the age of 20. The study suggested that this might be because many adults didn’t get the needed vaccines because they thought measles had disappeared, others only got one dose, and almost all were unaware that their vaccine protection was waning. (By the way, the study noted that the disease statistics of some groups like the military and indigenous Canadians, are not available.)
Now, do you see why the Times’ blaming of the religious and the conservatives is dangerous? We have a bigger problem than a handful of religious conservatives. The debate should not be about isolating and stereotyping some religious groups, but about the bigger problem of vaccine-protection waning and the fading of memories about certain epidemic diseases.
Making this a crusade against religio-conservatives is a dangerous exaggeration that covers up the truth: the bigger problems and threatens to politicize the whole vaccine debate. Maybe secular liberal bias is the main causes of our current measles problems?
Making this a crusade against religio-conservatives is a dangerous exaggeration.
More detailed medical word from Alberta, Canada further undermines the Times superficial guesswork of throwing the darts at the religious and the conservatives. There, the latest authoritative news, according to the BBC, is that the spread happened so quickly that health officials were unable to pinpoint exactly how or where the outbreak began, said Dr Vivien Suttorp, the medical officer of health in southern Alberta,
The epidemic in Canada was a little bit like a dart game, meaning that by chance the Times could be write occasionally. Dr. Janna Shapiro, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Vaccine Preventable Diseases, said there is “an element of chance” at play, where a virus is introduced to a community by accident and spreads among those who are unprotected. The problem is much deeper than secular culture warriors think, and he solution will be also.
If you have more information and better analysis, by all means, let’s have it. But don’t give me politically-driven screeds allegedly answering questions like, “Will the religious kill me?” Or, How to watch out for conservatives who lurk with dirty disease? By the way, media critic Terry Mattingly does a better job of tracking news media’s mistakes when it comes to religion. Take a look at his
Rational Sheep.
In the meantime, I would like to know more about the dangers of vaccine-protection waning. I know that we all ask ourselves questions like, Do I need another tetanus shot? Can I take too many vaccines at the same time? Can I get the mumps now?
