Avoiding flu shot could have deadly consequences

Healthy people avoiding the flu shot could have deadly consequences for others, according to a health promoter from Ryerson University on Wednesday.

Juannittah Kamera, Ryerson’s health promotion programs coordinator, said the annual vaccination is a vital way to protect those who are too young or too old to have strong immune systems.

“You could get the flu and yes, you feel horrible and yes, you’re in bed,” Kamera said. “Those people get the flu and it could kill them.”

At least one Ryerson student is using similar reasoning.

“I’m not getting vaccinated for myself,” Daniel Henrique said. “I’m getting vaccinated for my grandma.”

Henrique, who lives with his 83-year-old grandmother, said he gets the flu shot every year.

Other students, however, said they cannot find the time.

“It’s something that I used to do with my elementary school,” said Sara Ventura, who studies business management. “But now that I’m not required to do it, it’s really bad but I’m not going to go out of my way to get it.”

Sarah Dimailig agreed, even though she said she’s currently under the weather.

“Well, I’m already sick,” Dimailig said. “I think I should get (vaccinated) every year but I don’t really go and take the initiative to.”

There are approximately 3,500 deaths from the flu in this country each year, according to Statistics Canada.

One mother from Mississauga has experienced that first-hand.

“We have no idea what path the flu took before it got to (my son) in May,” Jill Promoli McGee said in a phone interview on Tuesday night. “What if one more person got the flu shot or stayed home when they were sick or washed their hands a little more carefully one day … one person in that chain could have made a different choice and prevented him from ever getting the flu in the first place and then he’d still be here.”

Promoli McGee said her two-year-old son, Jude, had developed a low-grade fever. She gave him Tylenol and laid him down for his daily nap with his twin brother.

“When I went to go get them up, Thomas jumped up but Jude didn’t and that was unusual because normally they would both be sleeping or they would both be awake because one would wake up the other,” Promoli McGee said. “I looked at Jude and I immediately could tell that something was wrong.”

Promoli McGee said she called 911 and started CPR with help from neighbours but there was nothing they could do. Jude died that day at Credit Valley Hospital.

“For almost four months, we didn’t know what had happened,” she said. “But then we received a call from pathology and it was confirmed that he had influenza B.”

The diagnosis came despite the fact that Promoli McGee said she had all three of her children vaccinated the previous December.

Kamera said, although the flu shot has proven to be effective in Ontario, the vaccine doesn’t have a 100 pre cent success rate.

“You continue to be able to give (the flu) to people right up until day four or five that is if you’ve had the vaccine,” Kamera said. “If you don’t have the vaccine that … could be until day nine or ten.”

Promoli McGee has since started a campaign using the hashtag #forjudeforeverybody to stress how crucial flu prevention is and how little it takes to make such a big difference.

“It’s such a stupid preventable way for a child to die and it doesn’t make any sense.”

Ryerson University offers free flu vaccinations for students, faculty and staff at the Medical Centre, Monday though Friday.

As for Promoli McGee, she said people need to remember what’s really at stake.

“He was this wonderful little boy who loved race cars and robots and Superman,” said Promoli McGee, while apologizing for her kids laughing in the background. “And it’s just so sad that we don’t get to figure out what else is going to be exciting for him and watch him grow up and go after whatever it was that was going to make him fall completely in love with life. He was… he was awesome.”