Please, get your flu shot
If we had a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine right now the queue of people wanting it would be practically beyond measure. It would make the recent snaking lines of Ontarians waiting hours to get a test seem short by comparison.
We don’t yet have that vaccine, but we do have another important one, the value of which has often been overlooked in this country. That’s the vaccine for influenza — the common flu.
This year, we need far more Canadians to roll up their sleeves and get the flu shot than have done so in previous years.
It’s hard to overstate the importance of limiting the spread of seasonal flu this winter. There’s a reason the flu immunization campaign comes second on the list of six points in the fall pandemic plan that the province rolled out three weeks ago.
As public health advice goes, that puts getting a flu shot right after the golden three COVID-19 preventive measures: keep your distance, wear a mask, wash your hands.
Fighting the pandemic is hard enough, so there’s no excuse for putting ourselves and others at additional risk and taxing the health-care system further by not doing all we can to keep this flu season in check.
“Please make sure you get yours,” Premier Doug Ford said when he announced this year’s enhanced immunization campaign. “It’s never been more important.”
By the same token, it’s incumbent on his government not to mess this one up. The province needs to fulfil its side of the bargain by making sure that flu shots are available in sufficient quantities for everyone who wants them at doctors’ offices, clinics and neighbourhood pharmacies. It must be easy and convenient to get.
In these early days that hasn’t always been the case. Some pharmacies don’t have supply on hand every day and there have been reports of long lines and people struggling to book timely appointments to get a shot.
We sincerely hope these are just hiccups that will be sorted quickly as more vaccine supplies are delivered.
Demand for the vaccine is certain to be higher than normal — that’s why Ontario ordered 5.1 million doses, 700,000 more than last year. But the province must also be prepared to deliver those shots safely in the midst of the pandemic and ensure that supply matches demand on the ground.
We can’t afford to have a repeat of Ontario’s COVID-19 testing debacle, where lines grew so long that the government changed the testing rules to make them disappear.
The flu is not COVID-19, but it is a serious illness that’s especially dangerous to the very young, the very old and people with weakened immune systems or medical conditions, such as asthma.
It’s estimated that an average of 3,500 Canadians die of the flu and 12,200 more are hospitalized every year. And, like clockwork, hospitals struggle to cope with the flu-season surge.
This year, the health system is already under stress. As we know, thanks to Ontario’s pandemic projections, it doesn’t take much in the way of serious hospital admissions — just a couple hundred people in intensive care — before the entire system starts grinding to a halt. That could mean cancer treatments, surgeries and routine but important health services would be put off once again. No one wants to see that.
So health officials are right to urge everyone who can get a flu shot to do so in the coming weeks.
And Ontarians have every right to expect that their government will deliver this all-important flu shot program far more seamlessly and effectively than it has managed to do so far with COVID-19 testing and tracing. We can’t afford any more bungles.
The province needs to make sure flu shots are available for everyone who wants them