As flu season approaches, doctors across Canada are urging residents to roll up their sleeves for the annual flu shot, stressing its importance for children, seniors, and those with underlying lung conditions. In Ontario, seniors, long-term care residents, hospital staff, and patients will be the first to receive the vaccine this week, with eligibility expanding to everyone six months and older beginning October 27. Most other provinces and territories will launch their programs in mid-October.
Dr. Netisha Gupta of the Lung Health Foundation explained that young children, seniors, and individuals living with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are at the highest risk of severe illness from influenza. While the vaccine may not always prevent infection, she emphasized its proven ability to make cases milder and to drastically cut the risk of hospitalization. “Your body already knows how to respond so you don’t have a severe reaction. So you don’t end up in the hospital. So you don’t end up, you know, having pneumonia,” she said, noting it takes about two weeks after the shot for protection to build.
Research backs up those warnings. Dr. Jesse Papenburg, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Montreal Children’s Hospital and co-lead author of a recent national study, said the flu vaccine reduces the need for medical visits or hospitalization by about half. The study, which examined flu-related hospitalizations and deaths among Canadians 16 and younger between 2004 and 2022, found 12,887 hospitalizations and 80 deaths. More than half of those deaths were children under the age of five, and about three-quarters of the children who died had chronic medical conditions. Strikingly, only one in four children studied had been vaccinated.
“Young age itself is a risk factor for more severe influenza disease, partly because children haven’t had as many exposures to the virus, so their immunity is lower. Babies, in particular, are more vulnerable because of the smaller size of their airways,” Papenburg said. He added that while flu-related deaths in children remain rare, they are “potentially preventable” with timely vaccination.
Health experts say the message is clear: the flu is not just another cold. It can have serious, sometimes deadly, consequences, especially for vulnerable populations. Vaccination remains the most effective way to prepare the body to fight the virus and to prevent flu from overwhelming families and hospitals in the months ahead.