- Dr. Ian Arra, Medical Officer of Health, Grey Bruce

The overwhelming community support for the public health message for all of us to receive the flu vaccination continues to be a remarkable success. However, this increasing demand has led to intermittent gaps in the supply. The Ministry of Health advises that there may be times when the influenza vaccine is temporarily unavailable due to the unprecedented demand. Ordering restrictions are in place to ensure that all locations have access to the vaccine.

At this time, influenza vaccine doses will not be available in all locations across the province. Supplies are being replenished on an ongoing basis. Please check with your local pharmacy or health care provider for local availability

Of note, there are two separate distribution systems for the flu vaccine:

The first one, as you know, is to pharmacies directly from the Ministry of Health and its national supplier. Our local Health Unit has no authority to distribute to pharmacies. The role of Public Health in supporting this system is in reviewing fridge temperature logs and investigating  cold chain incidents.

The second distribution system is through public health to hospitals, primary care, long term care, and other health care providers. The supplies of vaccine through this system have been steady, and continue to come in and are distributed to health care providers and others as they arrive.

Initial shipments of flu vaccine were earmarked for those at high-risk, including young children, older adults and residents and staff of long-term care and retirement homes. A significant proportion of those populations have been successfully vaccinated.

The two pillars of this success have been the work of our pharmacy partners, and the proactive collaboration between Public Health and some of the family health teams. For example, the Peninsula Family Health Team worked closely with Public Health to ensure that their requested 1,000 doses for their eight community immunization clinics were received on time to help immunize the residents of the Bruce Peninsula.

We encourage all health care providers in Grey and Bruce to help in handling the load and contributing to this success.