Realizing the future of vaccination for public health (Chief Public Health Officer of Canada’s report on the state of public health in Canada, 2024)

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Vaccination significance and health equity

Vaccines provide a wide range of health, societal and economic benefits with the potential to have great impacts on people’s lives. Vaccination uptake differs by community, and some communities face increased barriers to vaccination, creating inequities in health outcomes. Black, Indigenous and other racialized communities experience disproportionate impacts of vaccine-preventable diseases due to structural and social determinants of health. Encouraging vaccination uptake helps promote health equity among all groups.

Vaccination in Canada

This annual report from the Chief Public Health Officer (CPHO) of Canada argues for a shift in focus to a new framework designed to realize the full potential of vaccination in Canada and greatest benefits for the well-being of Canadians at all stages of life. The report identifies past and present roles, as well as challenges and opportunities within the vaccination system. Future implications are described, with a focus on the essential tools to increase necessary vaccine uptake.

An example of the benefits of vaccines was shown in the COVID-19 vaccination program. An estimated $222 billion benefit for the wider community can be attributed to the vaccine’s prevention of premature mortality.

Framework for system-level action on vaccination

This report builds on the 2021 CPHO annual report and adapts its public health system framework to focus on vaccination. The framework identifies building blocks (tools) of the public health system with core objectives related to vaccination including:

Policy and program interventions: Equitable and community-driven initiatives that facilitate access to vaccination

Evidence, knowledge and information: Inclusive and interoperable vaccination evidence systems to understand population health needs

Medical and digital health technology: Purposeful and adaptive vaccine technology for equity

Next, the report explores how to strengthen foundations of the public health system for vaccination, including how governments, communities and health care professionals can support each other to make vaccines accessible and acceptable for all. The final section identifies priority areas and methods to make the report’s vision of optimal vaccination a reality in all communities.

Understanding the challenges, barriers and inequities in vaccination uptake among Canadian communities can guide more equitable vaccination programs and contribute to addressing structural and social determinants of health.

Use this resource to

Understand the broad impacts of vaccination across populations, sectors and society

Develop and implement sustainable, equitable vaccination programs and policies taking into account structural and social determinants of health

Alignment with NCCDH work

COVID-19 amplified existing health system gaps that result in disproportionate impacts for some populations. During the pandemic, the NCCDH focused on highlighting the structural and social determinants of health that led to vaccine hesitancy and differential uptake of vaccines.

The NCCDH has a wide variety of resources on vaccination uptake and the structural and social determinants of health to guide public health practitioners, policy-makers and decision-makers in embedding equity in vaccination programming and policy. These include:

“We were out ahead of public health”: Leading COVID-19 vaccine equity for Black communities across Canada (2021)

'Back to better’: Amplifying health equity, and determinants of health perspectives during the COVID-19 pandemic (2021)

Webinar: Rethinking vaccine confidence: Supporting uptake through equitable community responses (2021)

The Equity in Action project is a collection of stories demonstrating how interventions successfully promoted health equity, most of them taking place during the COVID-19 pandemic. There is much to learn from organizations that pivoted their vaccination approaches to centre equity and address structural and social determinants of health.

Reference

Public Health Agency of Canada. (2024). Realizing the future of vaccination for public health (Chief Public Health Officer of Canada's report on the state of public health in Canada, 2024). https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/phac-aspc/documents/corporate/publications/chief-public-health-officer-reports-state-public-health-canada/state-public-health-canada-2024/report/report.pdf

Tags: Infectious disease, Pandemic, Public Health Agency of Canada, Document, Report / Document