Doctors, pharmacists urging Ontarians to get flu shots as province sees rise in cases
CBC
As flu cases rise across the province and vaccine hesitancy persists, Ontario pharmacists and doctors are urging residents to get immunized.
The flu shot continues to be the best way to prevent being infected, said Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious diseases specialist at Toronto General Hospital.
“The message is: Get the flu shot,” he told CBC Radio’s Metro Morning this week.
“The flu is a nasty, nasty virus that can really land people in hospital.”
While the flu season is just starting in Ontario, parts of the Southern Hemisphere have already seen a rise in cases — above average for the second year in a row.
The ongoing flu season abroad has been marked by record case counts, as well as an early start to the season across parts of Asia and the U.K. As Canada heads into the winter, it could be a bellwether of what’s to come.
Public Health Ontario data shows nearly two per cent of tests for influenza came back positive from Oct. 26 to Nov. 1 — the most recent surveillance period — and noted it was higher than the week before.
The provincial health agency predicts the number of cases will continue to go up in November, especially among children.
Yet, vaccine hesitancy and apathy persist. The reason there’s uncertainty is because the topic of vaccines has been top of mind for so long, said Sandra Hanna, a Toronto pharmacist and CEO of the Neighbourhood Pharmacist Association of Canada — especially after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There's more just a general fatigue,” Hanna told CBC Toronto this week.
“We want to get back to that mentality that it is part of a routine practice to keep us healthy, not only individually, but as a population.”
A new influenza A strain is also worsening the reluctance of some to get vaccinated. H3N2 is typically known for more severe infections, especially among older people.
The particularly troubling bit? Some experts say the latest mutation is widening the gap between the virus and the available flu shot, possibly rendering it a mismatch.
But that doesn’t mean the immunization’s efficacy is zero, it just means it might be lower, Bogoch said.
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