Last month I participated in a project with Trillium Health Partners in Mississauga. Together with Trillium President and CEO Michelle DiEmanuele, Mississauga East-Cooksville MP Peter Fonseca, Mississauga East-Cooksville MPP Dipika Damerla, and Peel Regional Police Chief Jennifer Evans, we met to talk about our personal reasons for getting the flu shot, as well as important information you need to know about how you can protect yourself and those in your community. It’s a quick video and it’s also available on Youtube.
I’m so grateful for the support we’ve had from our elected representatives and our community leaders. Thousands of Canadians die from the flu every year, and we can all do better to protect our loved ones and people around us. Keep going, let’s do better together. Let’s see if we can bring down those numbers. For Jude, For Everyone.
January 6th, 2016 UPDATE: I spoke with Trillium Health Partners yesterday and as you may have seen in the news, hospitals are overwhelmed with flu patients already, with the worst to be expected next month, and continuing into late spring. In an average year only 35% of Ontarians are vaccinated against the flu, including only 20% of our children. This leaves 65% of our population (and 80% of our children) without any protection against the flu. Remember that influenza is unstable, meaning that exposure in previous years gives you no immunity against the present strain. Your body can’t recognize it. It is not too late to get your shot, but it takes up to two weeks to be effective. Go now to minimize your chance of getting sick this season.
Whether you’ve had your shot or not, there are things that we all can and should be doing, and we’ve put together a page to help protect yourself and your community as we face the worst of the season. Read through and do whatever you can to stay healthy this year. As someone who loves someone who died from the flu, I ask you to consider what extra steps you can take this season to protect yourself and others. I can’t tell you how it feels to lose someone to something so preventable, and I would give anything to keep someone from going through what we now will for the rest of our lives. Influenza is a nasty illness, so do this for yourself. You don’t have time to be this sick when you can prevent it. But also do it for those around you who might not survive the flu. Help us save lives this year.