Check vaccinations before heading back to school: chief public health officer

TORONTO — Canada’s chief public health officer is urging parents to check that routine childhood vaccinations are up-to-date as kids head back to school. Joss Reimer said measles is still spreading, while vaccine misinformation continues to circulate online. The national measles immunization rate for two-year-olds is about 85 per cent, falling short of the 95 per cent needed for herd immunity, Reimer said.

Although rates of infection in the multi-province measles outbreak that began in 2024 — and cost Canada its measles elimination status late last year — appear to be going down, kids who aren’t vaccinated are always at risk because people bring the virus into the country and it’s “incredibly infectious,” she said. Most provinces have declared the outbreak over at various times over the last year but recent cases have been reported in Manitoba, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada website. Children should receive two doses of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine — the first dose at 12 to 15 months of age and the second at 18 months, or around the time they start school, depending on the province.

Reimer said parents should check their child’s vaccine record and reach out to a primary-care provider or their local public health unit if they can’t find it. “I know there’s a lot to think about when it’s back-to-school. But this is a great time that we want you to just trigger your memory to double-check this before your kids end up in that space where viruses can spread so easily,” she said.

It can be hard for parents to wade through misinformation stoking fear about vaccines online and find science-based health advice, she said. “Sometimes when people aren’t even looking for it, they’re still being bombarded by misinformation through algorithms,” Reimer said. We want parents to have questions when they’re thinking about any intervention with their children, but I just want to make sure that they also have access to reliable answers,” she said.

Parents can find evidence-based information on childhood vaccination through public health and medical association websites and the Canadian Paediatric Society, Reimer said. But it’s even more important to make sure people have access to fact-based information at the community level through the people they trust, she said.