Vaccine champion promotes flu vaccine, especially during fourth wave
Dawn Erickson is a big believer in vaccines, including her yearly influenza vaccination.
The Outlook resident started getting the flu vaccine regularly about 16 years ago, when her father was diagnosed with cancer and she became his caregiver while he was receiving treatment.
“He couldn’t get the flu, so I needed to do what I had to so he didn’t get it. So I got the shot.”
She admits, over the next few years, she wondered, “Do I still need to get it?”
“Then I got the flu. And I was like, ‘Yup, I still need to get the shot.’”
Dawn contracted influenza about 10 years ago.
“I was so sick. I was in bed for the longest time – three days, just about. I couldn’t get out of bed to even go to the doctor. I knew I had the flu, so I did what I knew they’d tell me to do – drink fluids and rest.”
Luckily, Dawn had received her flu vaccine that year.
“If I hadn’t had it, I could’ve been a lot worse,” she notes.
She reacts to the flu vaccine every time, but gets it anyway.
“I know the next day, I’m not going to feel like myself. I’ll have a teeny fever, and be really sluggish. But I know my body is building antibodies, and a reaction is better than the flu, so I’ll take that every time.”
Dawn still gets her vaccine for the same reason she got it the first time – to protect those around her – but she has an extra reason this year, one that everyone in Saskatchewan has: to do what she can to stay healthy while the health-care system deals with the fourth wave of COVID-19.
“Especially at this time, I don’t want to be someone who gets sick with the flu and feel like I need to be in the hospital, and there’s no bed because they are full of COVID-19 patients.”
The doctors, nurses and other caregivers in Saskatchewan are exhausted right now due to the fourth wave of COVID-19, she added.
“I need to do my part. I can’t take over for the doctors and nurses and let them rest while I do their work – I don’t have the training. But I can go get a flu shot. It’s an easy way to help do my part to take a little strain off of them.”
Dawn has also been fully vaccinated for COVID-19 for the same reason.
“When I first thought about getting a COVID-19 vaccine, it was kind of scary,” she admitted. “I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. But I got the right information, and I did what was best for everybody.”
Dawn lent her voice to a Saskatchewan Health Authority training video for COVID-19 testing, is a Patient and Family Partner, and a member of the organization’s Patient and Family Leadership Council. She is passionate about helping make the province’s health care system better.
“It’s all about the people of Saskatchewan,” she said.
