The entangled temporalities of a forgotten disease: Making sense of the 2025 measles resurgence in the U.S. and Canada

Measles outbreaks in high-income countries underscore the complex temporalities of this vaccine-preventable and all but forgotten disease. They challenge linear assumptions about the relationship between vaccine availability and disease eradication, exposing weakened public risk perception and declining vaccination uptake. Focusing on the 2025 measles outbreaks in the United States and Canada, this article explores, through a temporal lens, how the disease’s return is discussed on Reddit, an online platform for public discussion. The analysis uncovers multi-scalar and entangled temporalities (e.g. historical memory, generational amnesia, political timing, and future uncertainty) that shape public understanding of measles. While vaccines remain a powerful technological intervention, their efficacy is contingent upon such social, cultural, and political factors as collective memory, institutional trust, and social solidarity. In this context, memories and historical narratives of measles and its vaccination emerge as counter-narratives to rising institutional skepticism and vaccine hesitancy. Unlike in previous eras, the intensifying politicization of vaccination in increasingly divided societies now risks normalizing diseases once effectively controlled. This temporal analysis of measles’ resurgence reveals distinct yet potentially hopeful dynamics: although its future is enmeshed in contemporary challenges, its past—recalled through generational storytelling—may enable more nuanced approaches to public engagement and health communication. • Measles’ resurgence reveals complex temporalities in public understanding • Reddit data links memory and politics to vaccine perceptions • Generational amnesia lowers awareness and vaccine uptake • Historical memory challenges rising vaccine skepticism • Temporal analysis suggests new strategies for health outreach