Respiratory virus season is upon us and provincial health authorities are urging British Columbians to do “what we know works,” including getting vaccinated, staying home when unwell, washing hands, social distancing and wearing masks wherever it needs. “The respiratory season is progressing as we expected, but we are in a very different place than we were a year ago,” noted provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry. Henry urged common sense in using “all our precautionary tools” to reduce the risk of transmission, but said mask mandates were unnecessary. He urged flu shots because “flu is a preventable disease.” Health Minister Adrian Dix said 1.2 million people had received the flu shot this year, double the number of last year. Henry said masks would not be enforced unless a completely new virus emerged. “I don’t believe we need this heavy-handed of a mandate,” Henry said. “I don’t see the need for a mask mandate per se because we have many other tools and a high level of protection.” He noted that “last year we had mask orders, but they were not in isolation. It was in the context of what we were dealing with at the time,” including the early stages of vaccination, high disease rates, including severe disease, absenteeism and various restrictions. “We are in a different situation now. We have a very high level of immunity. We have vaccines for COVID-19 and influenza, and we have treatments for both,” he said. He noted that 86 percent of B.C. ages five and older have had two doses of vaccine which when combined with immunity caused by infections means 90 percent of BC residents. have some degree of immunity. Health authorities are expecting a heady flu year after Australia and New Zealand were hit hard last season. Henry said the return of common respiratory viruses that had been mostly absent for the past two years has just begun in B.C. “We know the three main viruses to watch out for, COVID-19, but also influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and there are several other respiratory viruses that have caused illness.” Since the beginning of September one of the main causes of respiratory diseases across the province has been the enteroviruses and rhinoviruses that cause the “common cold”. However, Henry noted that enteroviruses can cause more serious illness and “we have seen Enterovirus D68 which is a particular strain of the virus that has been one of the drivers of children requiring hospital and medical care in recent months.” Just last week there was an increase in flu infections, mainly AH3 flu, while at the same time there was a leveling off of COVID-19, “so it’s not what’s causing most of the respiratory disease right now,” Henry says. There’s also been an uptick in RSV, “not the dramatic increase we see in flu, but still a significant increase,” he says. And due to various health protocols over the past two pandemic years, some children have not been exposed to RSV, and this combined with the flu has pushed pediatric care in Ontario to crisis levels. “We have quite a few youth groups that have never been exposed to RSV before,” notes Henry. “We’re seeing this in some parts of the country, particularly in Ontario, where RSV doesn’t cause more severe disease, but because more children haven’t yet developed immunity to it because they haven’t been exposed to it in recent years, it’s causing an increased number of children to be hospitalized care”. “We’re not seeing the same picture here in BC, but we’re still watching. We had quite a bit of RSV going around last fall and we’re starting to see an increase now.” The biggest impact on children in the province right now is influenza, particularly influenza A, he said. Meanwhile, only 51 percent of eligible children ages 5-11 in B.C. have had their first dose of COVID-19 vaccines. “A year ago we didn’t have vaccines for children, now we do. This is an important part of protecting children from a virus that we know does not cause serious illness in most cases, but can.” Henry also noted that immunity is a complicated picture. Short-term protection occurs when antibodies are present in our bodies, but that immunity wanes after three to four months, he said. “But we know that the second part – cell-mediated immunity – lasts much longer and provides strong protection against serious illness, hospitalization and death after two doses, and this is enhanced with each booster,” Henry said. He stressed that it is “really important for people to get this booster dose to protect us all from infection and to help mitigate the transmission of COVID-19 and the combinations we’ve seen.” He added that most people in BC are no longer at risk of serious illness and hospitalization and that the memorial is important to keep it that way. Effluent monitoring continues, which shows a reduction and leveling off of COVID-19, and this monitoring, which is primarily in the Lower Mainland, is set to expand to the interior and Vancouver Island.
