"Canada Lost Its Measles Elimination Status Because We Don’t Have Enough Nurses Who Speak Low German" by jenn

This post was originally published on November 11th, 2025. I've been spending some time reworking and cleaning up the Inkhaven posts I'm most proud of, and completed the process for this one today.

Today, Canada officially lost its measles elimination status. Measles was previously declared eliminated in Canada in 1998, but countries lose that status after 12 months of continuous transmission.

Here are some articles about the the fact that we have lost our measles elimination status: CBC, BBC, New York Times, Toronto Life. You can see some chatter on Reddit about it if you're interested here.

None of the above texts seemed to me to be focused on the actual thing that caused Canada to lose its measles elimination status, which is the rampant spread of measles among old-order religious communities, particularly the Mennonites. (Mennonites are basically, like, Amish-lite. Amish people can marry into Mennonite communities if they want a more laid-back lifestyle, but the reverse is not allowed. Similarly, old-order Mennonites can marry into less traditionally-minded Mennonite communities, but the reverse is not allowed.)

The Reddit comments that made this point are generally not highly upvoted[1], and this was certainly not a central point in any of [...]

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Outline:

(03:20) The Mennonite Outbreak

(06:58) Mennonite Geography

(11:47) Mennonites Are Susceptible To Facts and Logic, When Presented In Low German

The original text contained 6 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
January 25th, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/H8RdAbAmsqbpBWoDd/canada-lost-its-measles-elimination-status-because-we-don-t

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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