Getting the facts out on childhood vaccinations

Opinion

As is the case with many instances involving polls, surveys and percentages, how one views this result is largely a matter of perception. Glass half-full, glass half-empty; that kind of thing.

Many who read the survey released last week by the polling firm Angus Reid no doubt took encouragement from the revelation that nearly 70 per cent of Canadians support mandatory childhood vaccinations — a figure that likely reflects growing public unease at the recent rise in reported measles cases across the country.

The poll, conducted online between May 20 and 24, found 69 per cent of the 1,700 people surveyed said proof of vaccination should be required for children to attend school or daycare. A similar survey last year showed 55 per cent in support of mandatory vaccination for kids attending school/daycare.

The increased support for a legislated vaccine requirement coincides, of course, with the sharp rise in reported measles cases — an increase attributed to declining vaccination rates and the loss of the so-called “herd immunity” that had allowed the highly contagious disease to be largely eradicated after the MMR (measles/mumps/rubella) vaccine was introduced in the early 1970s.

In recent years, vaccine skepticism fuelled by online misinformation and widely debunked conspiracy theories — and accelerated by broader resistance to mandated vaccination during the COVID-19 pandemic — has led to fewer parents seeking to have their children immunized against MMR. In 2023, vaccination rates in Canada were approximately 82 per cent for one dose and 76 per cent for the recommended two doses, significantly below the 95 per cent uptake required to maintain herd immunity.

All of which helps to explain why in Canada, in 2025, there have been 2,755 new cases of measles (2,429 confirmed, 326 probable) reported as of May 24, spread across nine provincial/territorial jurisdictions — including Manitoba, which has recorded 76 cases (72 confirmed, four probable) this year.

The outbreak — which has been mirrored in other countries, including the U.S., where vaccine uptake has waned — is unnecessary and could have been prevented. The MMR vaccine is safe, effective and proven, and does not — contrary to the myriad falsehoods spread online by misinformed conspiracy theorists — have any connection to autism or other negative childhood afflictions.

So the good news, such as it is, is that an increasing number of Canadians seem inclined to support a vaccination requirement for kids attending schools and daycares — close-quarters environments in which exposure to contagious diseases such as measles could easily trigger an outbreak.

But the glass-half-empty view of the situation is that despite the alarming rise in measles cases, nearly one-third of the population remains opposed to mandatory vaccination. Proof of vaccination for kids to attend school/daycare (except for those with a valid exemption) is currently only required in Ontario and New Brunswick, and given the high rate of resistance to mandated vaccination, there’s very little likelihood such a measure would be imposed in Manitoba or other regions currently without one.

In this province, figures from 2023 showed nearly 80 per cent of children were vaccinated against MMR by age two and 65 per cent fully immunized by age seven, significantly lower than the national average. And in the Southern Health region, the epicentre of Manitoba’s current outbreak, vaccination uptake among seven-year-olds is just 53 per cent.

Clearly, the province must do a better job of communicating the risks and benefits to those in need of reliable, factual information. Recent public-opinion poll numbers may be encouraging, but when it comes to limiting the spread of measles in Manitoba, the glass is concerningly tilting toward empty.