Newfoundland and Labrador can be doing a lot better when it comes to immunizing seniors against infectious diseases.

Efforts at immunizing seniors have earned the province a failing grade from seniors’ advocacy organization, CanAge.

A new national report scored the province’s efforts at immunizing seniors against common infectious diseases, and NL came in last.

CanAge CEO Laura Tamblyn Watts hopes the report serves as an urgent wake-up call to the provincial government.

Tamblyn Watts says 82 per cent of seniors don’t live in nursing homes, and they don’t have the influenza protection that they need.

She says step one for the province should be to fund the specifically formulated influenza vaccine for all seniors.

Tamblyn Watts says that would make a huge difference in the lives of seniors, especially those living in rural and remote communities.

Earlier Story
Canada’s national seniors’ advocacy organization has scored Newfoundland and Labrador’s vaccination efforts a failing grade of ‘F’ due to serious gaps in the program.

CanAge says Newfoundland and Labrador is the worst performer of all provinces.

Laura Tamblyn Watts, CEO of CanAge, says for many seniors, getting the vaccinations they need is quite literally a matter of life and death.

Newfoundland and Labrador has one of the oldest populations of any jurisdiction in the country and is the largest geographically, by far, of the Atlantic Provinces.

Tamblyn Watts says Canada does a good job of vaccinating children but a terrible job of vaccinating adults and seniors. The advocacy group also gave NL an F on its efforts to inform seniors about how to access publicly-funded vaccines.

She hopes their report serves as a wake-up call to the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador.