Measles

• However, new challenges, such as the disruption of health systems caused by COVID-19, have underscored the importance of measles as a public health concern.
• A recent surge in cases in countries such as Canada from which it had largely disappeared has helped draw new attention to this old disease.

Measles in Canada

• Measles is one of the most infectious diseases known to science; nine out of 10 susceptible people will become infected if exposed.
• Vaccination is such an effective tool that, in Canada, measles has been considered eliminated since 1998.
• In short, measles is emerging as a public health problem in Canada once again.

Measles in humanitarian settings

• In humanitarian settings like those where MSF operates, aggravated by poor living conditions and malnutrition, it can be disastrous.
• For these reasons and more, vaccinating against measles is one of the first priorities for MSF teams in humanitarian emergencies, particularly in situations where people are forcibly displaced and living in crowded conditions like a camp.
• In 2024, MSF is seeing record-breaking cases of measles in some of the places where our teams work, such as northeastern Nigeria.

Growing impact of vaccine-preventable diseases

• These gaps in coverage of vaccine-preventable diseases are having significant impacts on global public health.
• For several years, MSF has been warning of growing outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases in places where we work that have significant implications for people living there, but also for global public health — including impacts on countries susceptible to imported cases, such as Canada.
• Governments and other global health funders generally understand why childhood vaccinations are important for primary health care.

Adam R Houston works for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) as the Medical Policy & Advocacy Advisor. Jason Nickerson works for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) as the Humanitarian Representative to Canada.

• The World Market for Vaccines, 2024 offers the most up-to-date and comprehensive analysis of adult and pediatric preventative vaccines.
• Since the early 2000s, the publisher has consistently published new editions of The World Market for Vaccines every two years.
• The report includes market forecasts, company market share data, and expert market estimates for different vaccine categories.
• The World Market for Vaccines, 2024 also examines market trends for human vaccines used to prevent various diseases.

• At least 1 in 5 unvaccinated people in the United States who contract measles is hospitalized.
• Approximately 1 child out of every 1,000 with measles will suffer brain injury potentially causing convulsions, deafness, or intellectual disability.
• Thankfully, by following established public health principles, Americans can make informed decisions, prevent outbreaks, and protect our communities.
• ASTHO members, the chief health officials of these jurisdictions, are dedicated to formulating and influencing sound public health policy and to ensuring excellence in public health practice.

• Our research shows that memes form part of a highly sophisticated strategy to spread and monetise health disinformation.
• Dismissing them as harmless jokes is to grossly underestimate their influence – and bolsters their power to spread potentially harmful health messages.

Anti-vaccine memes have a long history

Memes aren’t a recent invention. They have featured prominently in anti-vaccination messaging for centuries.
When widespread smallpox immunisation began in the early 19th century, political cartoons published in print media used memes (see image below) to evoke fear about the safety of the vaccine.

• The meme “vaccines cause autism”, which appeared on billboards and was circulated widely in the media, provoked doubts about the safety of the vaccine.
• The internet enables memes to be created anonymously, repurposed and shared at scale – making them a highly effective medium for spreading health disinformation.
• Memes play an integral role in disinformation campaigns by facilitating fear, uncertainty and doubt.

Influencers and money

• Our study analysed how popular anti-vaccine influencers used memes to galvanise the anti-vaccine movement during the COVID pandemic.
• First, memes were used to vilify the government and social institutions, portraying them as corrupt and politically compromised.
• Influencers suggested the unvaccinated were being persecuted, using evocative imagery to imply a false equivalence between those who remain unvaccinated by choice and the persecution of Jews during the Holocaust.

• Vaccination was associated with infertility, low sex drive and a lack of critical thinking.
• To establish group membership and promote a sense of belonging, influencers referred to those who are anti vaccines as their “soul family”.

Going viral – and avoiding challenge

• Several influencers provided their followers with “meme drops”: packages of memes with dissemination instructions.
• These memes were tested and produced in meme factories, then distributed monthly to a mass audience via personal newsletters and websites, encouraging followers to spread anti-vaccination content.
• By adapting memes to current affairs, influencers increased their relevance and likelihood of going viral.

• Under the protective guise of humour and satire, memes can evade fact checkers and content moderators while promoting anti-vaccine myths and unauthorised treatments.
• Memes may not look threatening – but that’s why they are such effective super spreaders of health disinformation.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.