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Vancouver is currently trying to contain a measles outbreak that has racked up 13 confirmed cases thus far, and may have spread into Alberta. As with all the other measles outbreaks in the developed world of late, it has been driven exclusively by falling vaccination rates among the general populace.

Below, a quick guide to why Canada’s unvaccinated aren’t endangering just themselves.

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Unvaccinated people are definitely causing these outbreaks

A driver who decides to forego a seatbelt endangers themselves. A driver who decides to drive drunk endangers others. While the unvaccinated may often think they fit in the former category, they’re squarely in the latter. By refusing to immunize, an unvaccinated person turns themselves into a vessel for a preventable infectious disease.

Western Canada is currently in the grip of a measles outbreak imported to Canada by international travellers. One of them was an unvaccinated 11-year-old boy who picked up the disease on a vacation to Vietnam. Had he been vaccinated against measles, he would almost certainly have returned without incident. But as it is, he became the carrier of what blossomed into a regional public health crisis.