PHO and the Canadian National Vaccine Safety (CANVAS) Network collaborate to support vaccine safety surveillance

Vaccine safety surveillance plays a critical role in the success of immunization programs and in maintaining public confidence in vaccines. The Canadian National Vaccine Safety (CANVAS) network studies vaccine safety after vaccines are approved for use by proactively collecting data through surveys. Each fall, CANVAS sets out to determine how often health events occur after a COVID-19 and/or influenza vaccine. This year, CANVAS is also monitoring safety events after receipt of any approved RSV vaccine. CANVAS investigators enroll vaccinated participants across Canada, including Ontario, to participate in this study. They also register unvaccinated participants to compare how common certain health events are in the unvaccinated group compared to the vaccinated group.

Public Health Ontario (PHO) collaborates with the CANVAS Network to ensure health events found through the CANVAS surveys are appropriately reported as adverse events following immunization to local public health units. Our involvement in the CANVAS study reflects a commitment to supporting safe and effective immunization programs for people in Ontario.

For more information please visit https://canvas-network.ca/ or if you have any questions about the survey, please contact CANVAS at ontario@canvas-network.ca.