Take your best shots

Fall is here bringing with it sweater weather, pumpkin spice everything, and the creepy crawlers we dread so much: colds, influenza, and COVID, among others. I have spent the past three years talking about the importance of good hand hygiene, respiratory etiquette, physical distancing, masks indoors, and the importance of vaccines. This year will be no different.

“Get your flu shot as soon as it becomes available and stay up to date on your COVID booster. ”

There are two main types of influenza that cause epidemics in humans: influenza A and influenza B and each of these is divided into further subtypes. Every February, The World Health Organization identifies the three most prevalent subtypes and begins production of the vaccines for that year.

Influenza is spread through aerosols and droplets produced by coughing and sneezing, or by coming into contact with respiratory secretions. You can spread the virus to others up to one day before you begin showing symptoms and up to five days after symptoms start.

It’s important to remember that it isn’t “just the flu.” Every year in Canada, more than 12,000 people are hospitalized and approximately 3,500 people die from complications of the flu.(†) The most likely groups of people to experience severe complications are long term care and retirement home residents, seniors over the age of sixty-five, children under the age of five, pregnant women, Indigenous peoples, and people with chronic disease like heart disease, lung disease, diabetes, kidney disease, and cancer. (††)

Many of our senior residents fall into one or more of these categories and many of us have loved ones who do as well. If you don’t want to take the flu shot for yourself, please do it for others. Preventing one outbreak not only protects our residents, it also helps family members, visitors, and our teams. Isolating seniors living in homes, taking away their activities, restricting visitors, and donning and doffing PPE multiple times each day is tough. Wouldn’t it be better if we just get flu out of our homes?

And finally, a reminder about some myth busting and misinformation:

• You cannot get the flu from the flu shot.

• Side effects after a flu shot are generally mild and resolve in a few days.

• Despite what some people think, the vaccine is quite effective at preventing the flu. For instance, during the 2019-2020 flu season (the last flu season prior to the pandemic), the Centre for Disease Control reported that flu vaccination prevented an estimated 7.5 million influenza illnesses, 3.7 million influenza-associated medical visits, 105,000 influenza-associated hospitalizations, and 6,3000 influenza-associated deaths. (†)

Get your flu shot as soon as it becomes available and stay up to date on your COVID booster. Together, we can protect those around us. This year #takeyourbestshots!

Footnotes:

† Influenza Resources | IPAC Canada (ipac-canada.org)

†† https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/flu-influenza/prevention-risks.html#a4