When Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization recommended the new RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) vaccine earlier this year for older and high-risk adults, they were thinking of people like Don Williams.
The 91-year-old Ottawa resident is at elevated risk from the respiratory virus for a number of reasons. They include his age, as well as a bronchial condition that makes him more susceptible to severe outcomes, and the fact that he and his wife live in a retirement home. Williams is also caregiver for his wife who has Parkinson’s disease and other health issues.
RSV is a common seasonal virus that produces mild symptoms in most people. In the very young and very old, as well as people with significant chronic health conditions, though, it can result in serious illness requiring hospitalization and even death. Living in congregate settings adds to that risk.
Given that, Williams was determined to get vaccinated against RSV. But he wants to know why protecting himself and his wife should have cost $550 for two vaccines that should have been free.
“I didn’t want to come down with it and end up in the hospital, and that is why I went ahead and did it,” he said. “But I think it should be free.”
In fact, the vaccine that protects against RSV is free in Ontario for people living in congregate settings like retirement homes but, unlike influenza and COVID-19 vaccines, it must be delivered at a clinic at the home. People who get it through a pharmacy with a doctor’s prescription have to pay.
That is what Williams eventually did after waiting for a clinic at Redwoods Retirement Home where he and his wife live.
In October, there were vaccination clinics at the retirement home for COVID-19 and influenza. Williams says he was told there would be another clinic for the RSV vaccine in a number of weeks.
That vaccination clinic was eventually scheduled for mid-December, but before it could be held there was an RSV outbreak at the home with around 20 residents becoming sick. The planned clinic had to be cancelled because the home was in lockdown.
Tired of waiting, Williams eventually arranged to get the RSV vaccines for he and his wife, but was shocked at the cost.
“That is not right,” he said.
Williams says he would like an answer from Ottawa Public Health about why the vaccine wasn’t offered sooner at his home. But, in a statement, OPH said it began distributing RSV vaccines to long-term care and retirement homes in late August and early September. Public health nurses also reached out to all retirement homes in early September to offer immunization clinic support. Redwoods Retirement Home, where Williams lives, turned down that offer.
On Dec. 6, the retirement home got back in touch with OPH to ask for help, saying they had not yet administered the RSV vaccine.
The earliest a clinic could be scheduled was Dec. 18. When the outbreak happened, the clinic was postponed. A rescheduled clinic is expected to be held at the retirement home in the coming weeks.
Crystal Wehbe, director of health and wellness at Redwoods, said she tried to encourage Williams to hold on until then, but he didn’t want to wait.
“I do feel bad,” she said.
Wehbe said there was initially very little interest in the RSV vaccine among residents at the retirement home and its main focus was on making sure as many people as possible received COVID-19 and influenza vaccines.
She said the home administers COVID and flu vaccines through a pharmacy, which means staff members can get them at the same time. That option wasn’t available for RSV, though.
Williams said only a handful of people in the home have received the RSV vaccine so far, some of whom had insurance to cover the cost.
“It shows you a lot of people don’t want to pay for it.”
Williams said he is not complaining about the retirement home, where he and his wife are happy. He just wishes the administration of the RSV vaccine was handled differently, and that he didn’t have to pay hundreds of dollars to protect them from a potentially serious illness.
Ottawa Public Health, meanwhile, encourages older adults living in retirement homes to speak to the home’s director of care to arrange for vaccination and says it works hard to make sure older adults have access to government-funded vaccines.
OPH said in a statement that it makes every effort to support homes in administering the vaccine ahead of RSV season. It also said that OPH would send doses of RSV to primary caregivers if older adults are unable to get vaccinated elsewhere. More information is available at ottawapublichealth.ca
As of Jan. 2, there had been six confirmed outbreaks of RSV in Ottawa healthcare institutions — including long-term care homes, hospitals and one retirement home — since the respiratory virus season began in late August.
A spokesperson for Ontario’s Ministry of Health confirmed that every resident of a retirement home who is 60 or older is eligible for a publicly funded RSV vaccine. Ontario was the first province in Canada to launch the publicly funded program for the adult RSV vaccine.
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