Featured Booster: Mary-Jean Smith

We're starting a new series on IBI, where we'll highlight one of our most active Boosters through a mini-interview! You'll learn about your fellow Boosters, why they care about immunization, and why they joined IBI. To start, we have Mary-Jean Smith, a public health nurse in Victoria, BC!

1 - Where do you live?

I live in Victoria BC.

2 - What do you do?

I'm a Public Health Nurse.

3 - Tell us what made you passionate about immunization.

I've been immunizing babies and children for the past 10 years through Public Health and I feel privileged to work in this role with young families. Knowing that I get to protect individual children and help keep our whole community healthy motivates me every day. If we stop immunizing, the diseases we're trying to protect children against are likely to re-emerge. This why we need to continue to promote routine immunizations for all children.

4 - What's something that you didn't know or surprised you when you did the quizzes?

That the burden of illness was so high among children prior to immunizations being available. It's shocking to hear how many children died of measles and diphtheria each year. This is still a problem worldwide and so partnering with UNICEF to help eradicate polio is amazing!

5 - If you could give one message to vaccine hesitant parents, what would it be?

Keep talking to knowledgeable health professionals. We're here to help and answer all your questions! There's lots of misinformation out there and we can help share the best current science.