April

According to Statistics Canada, Canada’s population is aging. The average age of Canadians will increase to 42.2 in 2021 (up from 39.9 in 2011). An older population will pay higher rates for life insurance and long-term disability insurance. A 1-year increase in the average age of a group is estimated to result in a 5% to 10% rise in insurance rates. 

Ms Kristel Leung won the prize for her story "A Final Bargain"

Thank you for inviting us to comment on Dr Cimolai’s letter. Vaccine safety, including injection safety, is important to the public, immunizers, and public health. In this regard, we produce immunization updates regularly[1] with administration advice based on provincial guidance.[2] This advice is consistent with national and US recommendations.[3,4]

Both the Immunization Bulletin from the Office of the Chief Medical Health Officer, Vancouver Coastal Health, dated 1 September 2015, and the Vaccine Administration and Pain Management Information Circular from the same source dated September 2015 advocate subcutaneous vaccine injection into the upper-outer triceps region for patients equal to or over 12 months of age. I recommend that Vancouver Coastal Health revise such a recommendation, and I advise immunizing health professionals about the hazards inherent to those 2015 recommendations.

Thanks to Dr Byrne for writing in response to my article, “Real doctors treat more than one species.” As I mentioned in the article, this was a superficial analogy to get people thinking. And it seems to have triggered some thinking in Dr Byrne that I would like to address.