Hospital workers need flu shots

How could it be that some of the most persuasive poster boys and girls for the anti-vaxxer movement work in Waterloo Region’s hospitals? Every year, several thousand Canadians die of influenza. And every year, public health officials urge us all to be vaccinated against the flu to reduce the pain, misery and, yes, the deaths it causes.

Yet just as most Canadians ignore this sound advice, far too many health-care workers — including a staggering 70 per cent working in this region’s three hospitals — refused or simply didn’t bother to be vaccinated in the 2016-17 flu season.

Whatever the reasons for this, something must be done to reverse the shocking trend.

Influenza or flu — not to be confused with stomach flu — is a highly contagious viral infection that causes fever, aches, weakness and coughing.

It sends about 12,200 people to hospital and causes 3,500 deaths in Canada each year.

Indeed, flu causes more deaths than all other vaccine-preventable illnesses combined in this country.

This is especially heartbreaking when you realize who is most threatened by the disease.

Babies, young children, the elderly and people with health conditions such as heart disease are all at higher risk of catching the flu than the general population. So are hospitalized patients.

You might think hospital workers who realize this would be first in line to get the flu shots.

They know there’s proven scientific merit to having the shot and that the Ontario government has long funded a comprehensive campaign to vaccinate the public.

They know, too, they’re caring for people who are especially vulnerable to contracting the flu.

Yet only 53.1 per cent of hospital workers in Ontario got the shot last flu season.

In this region, the percentage was even lower and has been plummeting for four years.

Why this is happening is hard to say, particularly when more than 80 per cent of the workers in the region’s long-term care homes were vaccinated last flu season.

It’s true that the effectiveness of the flu vaccine fluctuates from year to year and that it’s less effective than other vaccines because flu viruses rapidly evolve. But it’s still a powerful weapon against influenza. Let’s hope more hospital workers begin to accept the compelling moral arguments for being vaccinated and protecting their patients.

Let’s hope they consider the example they’re setting at a time when a growing and misguided hysteria about vaccinations in general has spawned the anti-vaccination, or anti-vaxxer, movement.

Many members of the public will conclude flu shots are unnecessary or even harmful when they see health professionals rejecting them.

As we enter another flu season, it’s time for the provincial government as well as public health and hospital officials to assume a greater leadership role in convincing hospital workers to be vaccinated. A concerted education campaign is overdue and would be preferable to trying to make flu shots mandatory.

As for the health-care workers themselves, we hope that as caring, dedicated professionals, they’ll see their duty and do it.