why vaccination is essential to the well-being of canadians
making sure you and your family are up to date with routine vaccinations is a proactive, preventive approach to staying healthy
published apr 21, 2025
last updated sep 23, 2025
5 minute read
5 minute read
vaccination protects family members of all ages, from infants to seniors, helping to keep canadians healthy throughout their lives. getty
this story is sponsored by
merck canada
this story was created by content works, postmedia’s commercial content division, on behalf of a client.
“an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” — so goes the old adage. or when it comes to our health, “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.” today, preventive medicine and 2022年世界杯名单猜测 go beyond just eating the odd piece of fruit. getting regular dental checkups, adopting a balanced diet and incorporating regular exercise into your routine are all ways to help reduce the risk of certain chronic illnesses, protecting your health over the long term.
“as a family doctor, preventive medicine is an essential part of what i do,” says dr. christine palmay, a family medicine physician at midtown health and wellness clinic in toronto. “good medicine treats disease; excellent medicine prevents disease.”
a key pillar of preventive medicine
just as preventive measures — like staying on top of doctor’s appointments and getting enough sleep — help protect your health over time, so does making sure you’re up to date with routine vaccinations.
“immunizations are a key pillar of preventive medicine,” says dr. palmay.
vaccination is a critical public health tool that keeps families and communities safe, but dr. palmay says that many people underestimate their vulnerability to infectious diseases. “oftentimes people think, ‘oh, i’m not going to be affected, i’m healthy.’ but vaccine-preventable diseases have acute effects and long-term complications,” says dr. palmay. “for example, older patients who get sick can end up in the hospital where their comorbidities change, and many times they lose the ability to live independently. that’s a shocking fact for many people.”
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thinking long-term is essential, as is taking proactive steps to protect oneself against the unexpected. “when you buy a house, you buy fire insurance,” says dr. palmay. “your house is probably not going to burn down, but you better have the insurance policy in place if it does.”
combating vaccine fatigue
dr. palmay notes that we’ve come a long way in terms of infectious diseases. “my parents and their generation were all completely afraid of polio because the danger was in their face,” she says. but this success in nearly eradicating certain infectious conditions has its disadvantages. “as time has passed, people have forgotten polio. it’s a bit of a weakness because there’s no frame of reference,” she says.
many canadians are also experiencing vaccine fatigue coming out of the covid-19 pandemic. “part of the problem is that everybody’s tired — not only patients, but doctors too,” says dr. palmay. “the pandemic was certainly a time where we seemed to only talk about immunizations.”
dr. palmay points out that the covid pandemic also showed us the horrifying, heartbreaking impact that not having vaccines available can have. “if nothing else, one of the silver linings from the pandemic is that hopefully we’ve learned how serious infectious diseases can be.”
“making sure that you’re immunized is the most important thing you can do to help protect yourself,” says dr. christine palmay, a family medicine physician. supplied
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the consequences of misinformation
the pandemic made clear how essential immunization is in saving lives, and what happens when no protection is available. despite this, the consequences of lagging vaccination rates can still be seen today; case in point is the recent measles outbreak in ontario.
from october 18, 2024 to april 2, 2025, ontario reported 661 measles cases, 75.2 per cent of which were in infants, children and adolescents. during this six-month period, there were six times more confirmed cases of measles in the province compared to those recorded during the entire decade from 2013 to 2023, when there were 101 cases.
among those infants, children and adolescents affected by the current outbreak, 94.4 per cent were unimmunized, meaning they had not received the recommended measles, mumps and rubella (mmr) or measles, mumps, rubella and varicella (mmrv) vaccines.
“measles is an incredibly contagious infectious disease,” says dr. palmay. “you have to maintain a certain level of immunization uptake in the community to keep it at bay.” while most people recover from measles within a few weeks, complications can be devastating; some may develop pneumonia or respiratory failure, and the infection can be fatal.
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this outbreak can be attributed to the population being woefully misinformed, according to dr. palmay. “if trends continue like this, we’re going to have a re-emergence of infectious diseases that we haven’t seen in years,” she says.
keeping canadians healthy at every stage of life
dr. palmay stresses that vaccination is a life-saving, science-backed tool that’s integral to public health — but it requires population-wide cooperation to be effective. “making sure that you’re immunized is the most important thing you can do to help protect yourself,” she says.
vaccination protects family members of all ages, from infants to seniors, helping to keep canadians healthy throughout their lives. the canadian immunization guide offers recommended immunization schedules for all stages of life to protect against vaccine-preventable diseases. these include vaccinations for mmr (one year old), varicella/chickenpox (15 months), maternal rsv (between 32 and 36 weeks of pregnancy), shingles (65 years old) and pneumonia (65 years old), amongst others.
recommended vaccination schedules also exist for specific populations, including infants born prematurely, people with chronic diseases, immunocompromised people and more. infants’ and children’s vaccine schedules and timing may vary by province or territory of residence and may depend on various individual factors.
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building healthier futures for canadians
with vaccination being such an essential part of preventive medicine and keeping canadians healthy, vaccine research and development are more important than ever.
“medicine is based in science, and science evolves,” says dr. palmay. “viruses mutate. the world is changing, and risk factors are changing. our population is changing. not only do we have scientific evolution, but we have social evolution that needs to be taken into account.”
when it comes to vaccine innovation and advancing r&d efforts, merck canada is a key player. the company has a long history of vaccine leadership, having used the power of leading-edge science to save and improve lives around the world for over 130 years. home to vaccine pioneers like dr. maurice hilleman, who’s credited with helping to develop more than 40 vaccines, merck’s long-standing commitment to vaccine innovation has had an undeniable impact on public health.
thanks to this innovative science, many infectious diseases are now vaccine-preventable, including mmr, varicella/chickenpox, maternal rsv, shingles and pneumonia.
taking control of your health
vaccines undergo rigorous testing and are widely acknowledged to be safe and effective. they’re also recognized as the greatest life-saving invention in human history. over the past 50 years, vaccines have saved at least 154 million lives globally and reduced infant deaths by 40 per cent. they offer immediate benefits for canadians of all ages.
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take control of your health today. talk to your doctor about vaccine options.
this story was created by healthing content works, healthing.ca’s commercial content division, on behalf of merck canada.
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