Canadian officials and public health experts have warned that US health and science institutions can no longer be relied upon for accurate information, particularly on vaccines, amid concerns that misinformation from the Trump administration could undermine confidence in healthcare in Canada.
Dawn Bowdish, an immunologist and professor at McMaster University in Ontario, said misleading claims from the US risk spilling over the border and influencing Canadian attitudes.
“I can’t imagine a world in which this misinformation doesn’t creep into Canadians’ consciousness and lead to doubt,” she said.
The warnings follow moves by the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, who has long promoted anti-vaccine views. In December, a panel appointed by Kennedy voted to remove a long-standing recommendation by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that all newborns be vaccinated against hepatitis B.
The CDC also amended its website in November, on Kennedy’s instruction, to state that “studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism”. Leading public health experts have condemned the claim as false.
Bowdish said the CDC’s shift away from evidence-based guidance makes it harder for Canadian health authorities to counter vaccine distrust.
In December, Canada’s health minister, Marjorie Michel, said US health and science institutions could no longer be trusted as reliable partners. Speaking to 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’s views.
Her comments came at the end of a damaging year for public health in Canada. In November, the country lost its measles elimination status after more than 5,000 cases were recorded nationwide.
Doctors cited falling childhood vaccination rates, limited access to family doctors and a surge in misinformation following the coronavirus pandemic as key factors behind the outbreak.
Bowdish also said Meta’s ban on news sharing in Canada, linked to a dispute with the federal government over legislation, has made it more difficult to circulate reliable public health information.
A national survey published in 2021 found that 2.1% of two-year-olds in Canada had received no vaccinations, up from 1.7% in 2019. Parents most commonly cited safety concerns or doubts about effectiveness.
At the time, Bowdish said those concerns were often linked to lack of access to family doctors rather than outright scepticism. She now believes misinformation has grown significantly, though more recent data is not yet available.
A poll released in December by Leger Healthcare found that while 74% of Canadians remain confident in vaccines, hesitancy has increased, largely due to safety fears fuelled by social media and mistrust of government.
The survey also showed that 17% of respondents who lacked confidence in vaccines relied on US government websites for information.
Kumanan Wilson, a professor of medicine at the University of Ottawa, said Canada should respond by strengthening cooperation with international public health bodies and taking a leading role in health surveillance.
“If we build this system, it’s not only going to be great for Canada,” he said. “We can provide really valuable information to the world.”
However, Michel Grignon, a health economist at McMaster University, argued that vaccine hesitancy in Canada is largely homegrown.
He said decades of weakened social safety nets, compounded by the pandemic, have eroded trust in government and social institutions.
Grignon pointed to the 2022 trucker protests against Covid restrictions as evidence of this breakdown in trust.
“We are the source of our own problem,” he said. “Our vaccine hesitancy has little to do with the US. It has to do with us.”
