Thank you.
Good afternoon.
My name is Joanne Langley, and I am speaking to you today from Nova Scotia. I'd like to start by acknowledging that my workplace here at Dalhousie University and the IWK Health Centre sit on the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi'kmaq.
Thank you for the invitation to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health.
Thank you, members of Parliament, for your services to the country.
I'm a pediatrician specializing in infectious diseases. I'm also a vaccine researcher and clinical epidemiologist. I've been honoured to work over several decades with public health colleagues on communicable disease control and vaccines to prevent and limit the spread of infectious diseases. These challenges that we have worked on together include the 2003 SARS outbreak, various local and regional epidemics and the last pandemic in 2009 due to influenza. The current pandemic, which has affected the physical, mental, social and economic well-being of humanity across our globe, has been unprecedented.
All of us have been heartened by the speed at which science and dedicated hard-working humans have delivered safe and highly effective COVID-19 vaccines. These advances in vaccine development are also unprecedented, but the work is not over. There are important tasks ahead for this year and, in my view, likely for a few years.
We must not become accustomed to this suffering, which has affected all people, including children. Now is the time for lofty goals and for solidarity. Words and deeds matter. We must support our health care professionals as they take care of the sick. We must support our public health workers as they implement what is the largest vaccine rollout in our country's history. We must continue public health measures and support for them until we understand the natural history of this virus.
There is much remaining basic and clinical science research to be done, and we must continue to strive to collaborate across all the man-made divisions that exist now to work together. While we protect people within our own borders, we must continue to lift our gaze to the protection of the peoples of the world, to the low- and middle-income countries, and how we can serve them.
I'd like to make a few closing comments about the role of vaccines in ensuring a healthy society. Immunization has been cited as one of the top 10 public health achievements of the last century. When there isn't a pandemic, I would argue that vaccines do not always get the attention they deserve. At this time, Canadian children are protected against 16 different infections. Vaccination can prevent whooping cough, death, disability and serious illness. Adults, too, have a schedule of vaccines that can prevent influenza, shingles, pneumonia and other life-altering infections. Immunization is a strong and dynamic system, but somewhat fragile.