Free influenza vaccines are now available to all Londoners six months of age and older, and local health officials are recommending residents get immunized ahead of what’s expected to be a difficult flu season for the health-care sector.
Those looking to get the flu shot can do so through their doctor, the Middlesex-London Health Unit (MLHU), participating pharmacies and nurse practitioner’s offices.
“There is significant concern that we could have a bigger flu season than years previously, and the reason for that is that we actually have seen very little flu circulating in our region or in Canada generally since the pandemic,” Dr. Alex Summers, the region’s medical officer of health, said on 980 CFPL’s The Morning Show with Devon Peacock.
The various public health measures implemented to curb the transmission of COVID-19 over the last two-and-a-half years, including stay-at-home orders and masking mandates, also worked effectively against influenza, Summers said.
“That means that many of us haven’t been exposed to flu over the last little while, and therefore, this year, many of us might be a little bit more vulnerable to it, and that’s why we’re really encouraging people to get their flu shot as soon as possible,” he said.
The looming flu season comes amid rising rates of other respiratory viruses, including COVID-19 and RSV, and as hospitals across the province grapple with staff shortages, high patient volumes, significant patient wait times, and in some cases, ER closures.
London Health Sciences Centre reported lengthy ER wait times for non-urgent matters on multiple occasions last month, and did so again on Monday, reporting wait times of five or more hours in the emergency department at Children’s Hospital.
Last week, it reported wait times of 15 to 20-plus hours at University and Victoria hospitals.
The severity of the upcoming flu season, and its impact on the health-care sector, is unclear, however Summers notes that the more severe flu seasons seen elsewhere, including Australia, whose flu season typically runs from May to October, could predict what ours might look like.
“There is a bit of a cadence to this, both from the fact that after a bad year of flu, people realize that it’s really important to get vaccinated so they’ll get vaccinated, and also some folks have gotten sick the year before and they have some protection the next year,” he said.
“What I’m hoping is that we can disrupt that cadence this year and say, even though we haven’t had a bad flu season in the last couple of years, we’ve learnt a lot about respiratory illness and we know so much the difference a vaccine can make.”
With COVID-19 still circulating in the community, Londoners are also recommended to get their latest booster dose if they haven’t already. The COVID-19 shot and the flu shot can be received on the same day.
Uptake for COVID-19 boosters has been steady locally, Summers says, however, health unit figures show that, overall, local residents have been less inclined to get them compared with the primary two-dose regimen.
According to the health unit, just under 25 per cent of residents in London and Middlesex aged 12 and older have gotten the first two doses and have had a booster within the last six months.
“I think the key thing for folks to recognize, and maybe this is what contributes to some of the fatigue is that, you know, many of us would have gotten our vaccination, but some of us also would have gotten COVID over the last little while,” Summers said.
“There might be a feeling that, ‘You know what? I got COVID once. I did OK. Is it really worth my time to go and get vaccinated again for this illness that I’ve already had?’ And the answer is yes!
“Because you can get COVID again, and getting vaccinated can limit the chances you’ll get it again, and it can make sure that if you do get it, your symptoms are as least severe as they can be.”
COVID-19 activity in the province has been generally stable, though it has been gradually increasing since early September, according to Public Health Ontario. The health agency says the proportion of the new BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 Omicron subvariants, which appear to be more transmissible, in the province is growing twice as quickly as the dominant BA.5 variant.
Last week, the former head of the province’s dissolved COVID-19 science advisory table called on the government to bring back masking mandates for essential settings including grocery stores, public transit and schools.
The provincial health-care system exhibited the kind of strain in August and September normally seen at the peak of a bad flu season, said Dr. Fahad Razak, an internist at St. Michael’s Hospital, adding there was little capacity to respond to a rise in COVID-19 cases.
— with files from The Canadian Press