The transition from summer to fall signals the start of school, cooling weather and, unfortunately, the beginning of flu season. Health Canada and the World Health Organization recommend getting a flu shot every year, as flu viruses learn to evolve and the effectiveness of a shot decreases over time. But following the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccines have also been created to fight against the infectious disease, with new variants of the novel coronavirus requiring updated shots through the years.
Earlier this month , Health Canada ordered the remaining COVID-19 vaccines to be destroyed in favour of the new Moderna vaccine, which should become available sometime this week . And just this week, Ontario and Quebec also announced a newly approved respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) shot would be available for newborns, young children, pregnant women and those over 65 years of age, which is expected to reduce the amount of infants and elderly people in hospitals. With all these shots, some Canadians may have questions about the benefit of each vaccine, whether they should get every shot and how often to get them, and if it's safe to get them all at once or if they should space them out.
CTVNews.ca spoke with an infectious disease specialist to see what they suggest as we officially enter flu season. Getting your shots Jeffrey Pernica is an associate professor with McMaster University's department of pediatrics, specializing in infectious diseases for children.
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