As expected, the measles diseases is rolling through the Mennonite Communities of Manitoba, just like they did in Texas, Ontarioi. Alberta, and now southern Manitoba. And guess what, I wish everyone there was as wise as John Neufeld. Not me, but Jonny Neufeld the co-owner of the Triangle Oasis Restaurant, a family restaurant in Winkler Manitoba home to some of the most extreme Mennonites in the province. This is the same town that was at the centre of covid denial during the pandemic.

Jonny Neufeld was paying special attention because many of this staff were related to each other so that if one got measles it might quickly spread through his staff. So Jonny Neufeld paid care and attention to take care of his staff, but even then, his restaurant was an exposure site. Sadly, his fellow Winklerites did not take such cares.

He’s watched as the number of exposure sites in Winkler rose. While he is immune through childhood immunization, he’s concerned for others in the community. He said thisto ther Winnipeg Free Press: “I feel like there’s a vaccine for it, and people that aren’t taking it are crazy,” he said. Makes sense doesn’t it? Unsurprisingly, someone with the name of John Neufeld is sound and rational. If only the other Mennonites in Winkler were that wise. Then there would likely be no outbreaks there. But they are not so rational.

Jonny Neufeld also said this: “People (have) been taking that vaccine for years, and more and more people here aren’t taking it for their kids, and it’s just like, what are they thinking? (Measles) kills.” Neufeld believes that because of the negative views of vaccines that appeared in Winkler during the Covid-19 pandemic, such views are still prevalent in there. In other words, they still don’t trust the government. As he said, “Because of the COVID vaccine, I guess, people don’t want to take any kind of vaccine.”  

There is one more factor that ought to make people more rational about measles than they were about Covid-19. This is the fact that the Covid-19 vaccines were new. In fact, many of the covid-deniers thought the government  raced them through the scientific testing without adequate precautions and tests. That speed made them suspicious about the government who, they believed, rushed the vaccine through the approval process.

But measles vaccines have been around for decades and have been tried and tested by millions of people who took the vaccine. The problems were very few and far between.

Unfortunately, not everyone in the Winkler area is as wise as John Neufeld!