December 3rd, 2020

Dr. Matthew Tunis

Executive Secretary, National Advisory Committee on Immunization
130 Colonnade Road
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0K9
 

Dear Dr. Tunis,

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, deathcare workers in Canada have worked alongside frontline healthcare workers to ensure that the deceased from the virus are safely dealt with. We have appreciated Health Canada’s and the Public Health Agency of Canada’s support with the provinces to ensure that our sector is supplied with personal protective equipment (PPE) and through other means.

However, as news emerges of potential vaccines on the horizon, I am writing you regarding the priority sequence for vaccination. While we encourage frontline healthcare workers who deal with COVID-19 patients on a daily basis to be at the top of the list for vaccinations, we believe because of the risk that our sector takes on that deathcare workers should have priority over the general public.

When an individual passes away from COVID-19, the responsibility falls to deathcare workers to ensure that the body is properly dealt with in a safe manner in order to not spread the disease further. Our workers attend the facilities in which the death occurred and interact with staff that have been directly exposed to the virus, which represents an increased risk to the individual.

While deathcare workers have been specifically trained to minimize risk through procedural alterations and use of PPE, this does not remove the potential for infection completely. This is why we believe the federal government must work with its provincial counterparts in ensuring that deathcare workers are included in the list of priority for vaccination. The National Academies of Science Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) in the U.S. recently released their framework which included deathcare workers in the highest priority phase for vaccine allocation, and we believe Canada should follow suit. 

Should you have any questions, please feel free to reach me at info@fsac.ca. We understand that your office is preoccupied with this situation, and appreciate any time you can give to considering our members.

Thank you,

Allan Cole
President
Funeral Service Association of Canada

800-1730 boul. St. Laurent Blvd., Ottawa, ON K1G 3Y7

613-505-0277 · info@fsac.ca · www.fsac.ca

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