Nova ScotiaAs flu vaccination rates have dipped slightly and COVID-19 vaccinations have plummeted in recent years, a Nova Scotia Health official remains optimistic. That’s because of who is getting vaccinated. Statistics show higher-risk groups have much higher vaccination ratesRichard Woodbury · CBC News · Posted: Oct 25, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 2 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 5 minutesA health worker inoculates a man at a flu vaccination centre in Nancy, France, on Jan. 14, 2025. (Jean-Christophe Verhaegen/AFP via Getty Images)As flu vaccination rates have dipped slightly and COVID-19 vaccinations have plummeted in recent years, a Nova Scotia Health official remains optimistic.That’s because of who is getting vaccinated.For the 2024-25 respiratory season, 135 Nova Scotians died because of the flu, while 123 died from COVID-19. This marked the first year since the beginning of the pandemic that flu deaths outnumbered COVID ones.For this latest respiratory season, about 30 per cent of Nova Scotians got their flu shots, while it was just under 19 per cent for COVID-19.For the past decade, the rate of influenza vaccination has been around one-third for Nova Scotians.Vaccination uptake highest in high-risk groupsDr. Catherine Brown, the regional medical officer of health for the central zone, said flu vaccination rates have been much greater in high-risk groups. She said they have averaged around 60 to 65 per cent for people over 65 and are even higher for people in long-term care facilities.For COVID-19, it’s a little trickier to compare the vaccination rates. While introduced in Nova Scotia in late 2020, the vaccination program in the early years of the pandemic was considered ongoing and hadn’t yet moved to a seasonal program like the influenza vaccine.By the end of 2022, almost 87 per cent of Nova Scotians had received a primary dose of the COVID vaccine.For the 2023-24 respiratory season, the COVID vaccination rate was 22.8 per cent. Last year, it was 18.6 per cent, but it was 49 per cent for Nova Scotians over 65 and around 75 per cent for people in long-term care facilities, said Brown.”That’s really encouraging to see that those Nova Scotians who are most at risk of getting sick from flu and COVID are the ones who are most likely to get vaccinated,” she said.Brown said the COVID virus has evolved over time and is less severe than it once was.Vaccine recommendationsShe said while the province recommends that everyone who is eligible for flu and COVID-19 vaccines get them, it’s especially important for people in higher-risk categories.While there’s overlap between the two shots for groups classified as being at high risk — people over 65 or living in long-term care — there are differences. For example, children under five are considered at elevated risk of severe illness or death from the flu, but not COVID, unless they are immunocompromised.”Who we really want to see get vaccinated are those at increased risk because that really is the best tool to protect themselves against these diseases,” said Brown.COVID and flu shot bookings are now open in Nova Scotia.Politicization of vaccinesDr. Scott Halperin, a professor of pediatrics, microbiology and immunology at Dalhousie University, has worked in vaccinology for about four decades.Halperin is not surprised vaccination rates have fallen. He attributes some of that to vaccine fatigue and how political the debates around the COVID vaccine have become.”Unfortunately, that’s spread to other vaccines, too,” he said. “And we’re seeing, you know, some lower uptake of all routine vaccines, so we need to recover from that.”Halperin said that in the hundreds of years vaccines have been available, there’s been anti-vaccination rhetoric. He said the vaccine debate is cyclical, with less chatter when there are disease outbreaks, but more as outbreaks get under control.”The population is more susceptible when they forget about diseases,” said Halperin. “But, you know, we saw a drop-off of measles immunization and we’ve seen outbreaks of measles with that. And now we’re seeing recovery of measles immunization rates because nobody wants to get measles.”Measles outbreak declared overOn Friday, the province said a measles outbreak in the northern zone was over. The outbreak was declared on July 6 and affected a total of 61 people.Brown said Public Health did an awareness campaign earlier this year to encourage people to get the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. In the summer alone, she said 9,000 Nova Scotians got a dose.In the previous year, only 1,500 doses of MMR were administered, said Brown.”You could see that when Public Health has put out messaging around perceived risk, we are seeing a tremendous response.”‘We need to look out for each other’Halperin said he believes people have a responsibility to protect others around them.”Saying, ‘Well, I don’t care, I’m happy to get infected. If I get infected, I can deal with it,’ that’s great if you choose to do that, but you’re also making that choice for the others around you, too,” said Halperin.”And I feel strongly that we have a social contract by living together, that we do need to look out for each other. And fortunately, looking out for yourself equally looks out for others.”MORE TOP STORIESABOUT THE AUTHORRichard Woodbury is a journalist with CBC Nova Scotia’s digital team. He can be reached at richard.woodbury@cbc.ca.
Nova Scotia Health sees silver lining in lower flu, COVID vaccine uptake
