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How is Measles Like the Canary in the Coal Mine?

By / / canary in the coal mine, measles outbreaks, public health, public health funding

Have you ever heard that you should think of measles outbreaks as the canary in the coal mine?

In the days before they had testing equipment and respirators, they used canaries to try and keep coal miners safe.
In the days before they had testing equipment and respirators, they used canaries to try and keep coal miners safe.

Coal miners used to take canaries into the mines because the birds were more sensitive to the toxic effect of gases that might be present in the mines. So as long as the canary was alive in its cage, the coal miners were probably safe too and there likely wasn’t much carbon monoxide or other toxic gases building up.

How is Measles Like the Canary in the Coal Mine?

So what does that have to do with measles?!?

Measles is very contagious.

“As the most contagious and fast-moving of the vaccine-preventable diseases, measles is often described as the “canary in the coalmine” for other disease outbreaks that might spring up where there are gaps in vaccination coverage.”

Amid pandemic chaos, measles – the “canary in the coalmine” of vaccine-preventable diseases – is spiking

It is much more contagious than most other vaccine-preventable diseases.

“Due to its highly infectious nature, measles effectively seeks out unvaccinated individuals. For this reason, it is often considered to be the indicator disease or the ‘canary in the coal mine’, able to identify individuals and subpopulations who remain unreached by immunization programs. Measles vaccination coverage serves as an indicator of the quality of immunization programs, while the epidemiology of measles cases highlights specific geographic areas and populations in which immunization services require further strengthening.”

Measles and Rubella Global Strategic Plan 2012-2020 midterm review

So measles outbreaks can alert you to overall problems with low immunization rates.

“…whenever and wherever an outbreak occurs we need to treat it as a warning of a potential vulnerability in the preparedness of those countries. In global health security terms, measles is the proverbial canary in the coal mine.”

Measles — the canary in the coalmine

And it’s a warning that unless action is taken, you will also start to see outbreaks of other vaccine preventable diseases, like pertussis and diphtheria, etc.

The Canaries are Dead

In the coal mines, when a canary collapsed, the miners would take action! They recognized that it was a sign of danger.

What are we doing now that our canaries are dying — measles is on the rise?

Even as public health was already underfunded, we are now going to spend even less, just as measles and pertussis are hitting our communities.
Even as public health was already underfunded, we are now going to spend even less, just as measles and pertussis are hitting our communities.

Will we resuscitate them, getting immunization rates back up to healthy levels so that more folks are vaccinated and protected?

With measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases on the rise, we are going to spend less money on vaccines that can prevent them, save lives, and keep diseases from being imported into our country?
With measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases on the rise, we are going to spend less money on vaccines that can prevent them, save lives, and keep diseases from being imported into our country?

Or will we head back towards pre-vaccine era levels of epidemics, cases, and deaths?

Tragically, it is easy to predict which way we are headed with the recent public health funding cuts and choices Bobby Kennedy is making, which makes it even more important to get vaccinated and protected now.

More on the Pre-Vaccine Era

Last Updated on March 28, 2025