Canadian officials say US health institutions no longer dependable for accurate information

Original article by Olivia Bowden in Toronto

Canadian officials and public health experts are warning that US health and science institutions can no longer be depended upon for accurate information, particularly when it comes to vaccinations, amid fears that misinformation from the Trump administration could further erode Canadians’ confidence in healthcare.

“I can’t imagine a world in which this misinformation doesn’t creep into Canadians’ consciousness and leads to doubt,” said Dawn Bowdish, an immunologist and professor at McMaster University in Ontario.

Those fears have emerged as the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, has forwarded an anti-vaccine agenda. In December, a panel appointed by Kennedy voted to remove a longstanding recommendation by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that all newborns be vaccinated against hepatitis B.

The CDC also updated its website in November at the instruction of Kennedy to claim that “studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism”, which top public health experts have decried as false.

The agency’s move toward misinformation and away from public health leadership makes it more difficult to combat distrust in vaccinations in Canada, says Bowdish.

In December, Canada’s health minister, Marjorie Michel, warned that US health and science institutions can no longer be depended upon for accurate information. In an interview with the Canadian Press, she said: “I cannot trust them as a reliable partner, no.”

Michel also told CBC News that “some” Canadians could be influenced by Kennedy.

The minister’s comments come at the conclusion of a disastrous year for measles in Canada, as the country was stripped of its measles elimination status in November after more than 5,000 cases were reported across the country.

Physicians pointed to drops in childhood vaccination rates, limited access to family doctors and surging misinformation in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic as just some of the factors fuelling the spread.

Meta’s ban on the sharing of news in Canada, due to an ongoing dispute over legislation between the tech company and the government, also impedes reliable public health messaging, said Bowdish.

In 2021, Canada published the results from a national survey on childhood immunisation and found 2.1% of two-year-olds had not received any vaccinations, an increase from 1.7% in 2019. Parents cited safety concerns or beliefs that vaccines did not work as their reasons for refusal.

Bowdish said in 2021 that these reasons often were connected to not having a family doctor and were related to access rather than skepticism. But in the last four years she suspects misinformation has surged, and new data is not available.

A December poll on vaccination hesitancy by research firm Leger Healthcare found that while most Canadians (74%) have confidence in vaccines, hesitancy has increased primarily due to fears around safety driven by social media and government mistrust.

The survey also found that 17% of those who expressed a lack of confidence in vaccines say they get their information from US government websites.

Kumanan Wilson, a doctor and professor of medicine at the University of Ottawa, said Canada can combat concerns about changes at the CDC by cooperating with other public health systems worldwide and taking the helm on developing health surveillance while US institutions languish.

“If we build this system, it’s not only going to be great for Canada. We can provide really valuable information to the world,” he said.

But Michel Grignon, a professor and health economist at McMaster University, warned that increased mistrust in vaccinations in Canada is the country’s own doing.

He said the federal government instead needs to look at the homegrown causes of vaccine distrust, rather than focusing too much on the US.

As Canada’s social safety nets have eroded over many decades, the pandemic was a further catalyst that disrupted social cohesion, pushing people to the margins of society and sowing distrust in government, he said.

Grignon pointed to the 2022 trucker protests against Covid restrictions as a manifestation of the collapse of trust.

“We are the source of our own problem, and our vaccine hesitancy has not much to do with the US. It has to do with us,” he said.