The North American Measles Outbreak of 2026
The Real Truth About Vaccines
As the World Cup starts, hosted by the United States, Mexico, and Canada, let’s take a look at The North American Measles Outbreak of 2026.
Wait, aren’t these all separate outbreaks and not one big outbreak?
The North American Measles Outbreak of 2026
Well, technically they are…
But they are also linked.
How?
“The D8 genotype, DSId 9171 has been identified across multiple countries and remains the main genotype detected in the Region.”
PAHO Regional Situation Report No.4: Measles in the Region of the Americas (4 June 2026)
The same strain of measles, D8-9171, has been found in measles outbreaks in Canada, Mexico, and the United States.
And that’s not surprising.
After all, we know that the measles outbreak in Mexico started when an 8-year-old unvaccinated Mennonite boy visited relatives in Seminole, Texas and traveled back to Mexico.
“The detection of measles virus lineage MVs/Ontario.CAN/47.24 across Canada, the United States, and Mexico supports the hypothesis of a travel-associated importation event—likely originating in Canada or involving individuals with recent international travel—in late 2024 or early 2025.”
Measles Outbreak - Southwest U.S. - 2025
And the outbreak in Canada started even earlier.
“Patient zero, as identified by the Globe and Mail newspaper, was a Canadian who was living in Thailand when measles broke out there in 2024. In October that year she attended a wedding in the province of New Brunswick where she was later admitted to hospital with severe illness and tested positive for measles.
She had never been vaccinated for measles, nor had several of the other wedding guests. From there they brought the virus to communities across Canada where vaccination rates were low. Mennonite and other Anabaptist communities were mostly affected, but experts say other communities with similarly low vaccination rates are also at risk.”
How a wedding lost the Americas its measles-free status
And how are the outbreaks in Canada and the United States linked?
Well, besides being the same strain, many of the outbreaks in the United States have also been in Mennonite communities.
Mennonite communities that do vaccinate, but at much lower rates than is necessary to reach herd immunity levels of protection.
And that leaves us with our current situation…
This one unvaccinated person who traveled to her sister’s wedding while sick has set off ongoing outbreaks in Canada, the United States, and Mexico, with:
18,279 cases and 43 deaths in Mexico
6,398 cases and 2 deaths in Canada
4,371 cases and 3 deaths in the United States
Outbreaks that don’t appear to be slowing down…
Outbreaks that will only get controlled if more people stop listening to anti-vaccine influencers and instead get vaccinated and protected with two doses of the MMR vaccine. And maybe even an early MMR for younger children who are at risk.