Flu and COVID-19 vaccine shots are available in parts of the country this week, with doctors urging people at highest risk in particular to get vaccinated as the respiratory virus season sets in.  

In Ontario, seniors, long-term care residents, hospital staff and patients will be able to get the flu shot starting this week. They can also get a COVID-19 vaccine, which doctors widely agree is safe to do at the same time.  

Flu and COVID-19 vaccination will open to everyone else in Ontario aged six months and older on Oct. 27, free of charge.  

On Oct. 1, Alberta will begin offering free COVID-19 and flu shots to vulnerable populations — including seniors living in long-term care, people 65 and older receiving the Alberta Seniors Benefit, health-care workers, people who are homeless, people receiving home care and anyone six months of age or older with underlying medical or immunocompromising conditions. 

Everyone else aged six months and older in Alberta can start getting both COVID and flu shots on Oct. 20. The flu vaccine will be free, but the province is charging $100 for the COVID shot to anyone not considered vulnerable.   

In Yukon, people can get both COVID-19 and flu vaccines free of charge starting Oct. 6 in Whitehorse. The shots will be available in other parts of the territory beginning Oct. 16.   

Most other provinces and territories are expected to begin their COVID-19 and flu shot programs in mid-October. 

The only other province that has so far indicated it will charge people who aren't considered priority groups for the COVID vaccine is Quebec.

In addition to seniors, long-term care residents, health-care workers and people with chronic diseases and compromised immune systems, Quebec's COVID-19 vaccine priority category includes people who are pregnant and adults living in remote communities, an emailed statement from the province's health and social services ministry said on Friday. 

The statement did not specify how much the COVID vaccine would cost for people who aren't in that category, but noted that the flu vaccine would continue to be free for everyone. 

Dr. Netisha Gupta of the Lung Health Foundation said young children, seniors and people with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease — known as COPD — are at especially high risk of severe illness from both COVID-19 and the flu.

While the vaccines can reduce the risk of falling ill, she said they're most effective at making infections that do occur milder and preventing hospitalization. 

Gupta said it takes about two weeks for that protection to take hold after getting the shot.  

The vaccines prevent severe outcomes by preparing the immune system to recognize and fight the virus when it appears, she said. 

"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," Gupta said. 

Dr. Jesse Papenburg, a pediatric infectious disease specialist and medical microbiologist at the Montreal Children's Hospital, is co-lead author of a recent study that looked at people aged 16 and younger who were hospitalized or died from influenza in Canada between 2004 and 2022. 

The study, published in the Journal of Pediatrics in July, found 80 children and youth died during that time period and 12,887 were hospitalized.

More than half of the children who died were under five years of age. 

"We know that young age is a risk factor for more severe influenza disease, in part because they haven't been exposed to as many infections with influenza, so they don't have as much immunity," said Papenburg.

"Also in part, especially in young babies, they're more vulnerable because of the smaller size of their airways."

About three-quarters of the kids who died had an underlying chronic medical condition, Papenburg said. 

Only one in four patients in the study had been vaccinated.

"Fortunately, mortality due to influenza in children is infrequent. But on the flip side, it is also potentially preventable," he said. 

"One of the take-home messages of the study is that the flu is not just another benign cold-like illness, that it can have serious complications that can lead to hospitalization, but also can even lead to death."

Papenburg, who is also an associate professor of pediatrics at McGill University, said the flu vaccine reduces the need for a visit to the doctor or hospitalization by about half.

The study used data from the IMPACT surveillance network, which includes 12 Canadian pediatric hospitals. 

Dr. Kirstin Weerdenburg, a pediatric emergency physician at IWK Health in Halifax who was not involved in the study, said she wishes people didn't "downplay" the potential seriousness of the flu for children and encourages parents to get themselves and their children vaccinated.   

"You could be one of those people that has a child that does have the more severe symptoms and be impacted so much differently than you thought," she said. 

In addition to getting vaccinated, people can take lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, including handwashing, masking and staying home when sick, to help prevent respiratory illnesses this season, Weerdenburg said. 

Although most cases of the flu can be managed at home, parents shouldn't hesitate to bring their child to the ER if they are having trouble breathing or showing signs of dehydration, she said.  

"If there is any concern, like at all, I always say just err on the side of caution and make sure that you get your child seen." 

———

– Nicole Ireland, The Canadian Press   

Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.