LAUSR

Influenza is regarded by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a “serious global health threat” and is responsible for a significant number of deaths worldwide (1, 2). Influenza vaccines are usually delivered in primary care physician practices as well as in pharmacy settings. Dental practices are generally not seen as routine providers of influenza vaccines, although certain countries have been recently starting to develop frameworks to facilitate this (3, 4). Potential workforce capacity gaps, expansion of the eligible cohorts, requirement to drive improvements in uptake, and to reduce inequalities support the rationale for members of the dental team to join the vaccinator workforce. We propose a few potential models, some of which are currently being piloted in certain areas of the United Kingdom, and suggest that the members of the dental team might be ideally placed to contribute to national immunization programs. The coronavirus pandemic has had a devastating effect on people’s lives, pushing the limits of healthcare systems and placing enormous economic and political pressures on governments. As with other pandemics throughout history it has also highlighted the vulnerabilities of our society and forced us to reflect on our values and priorities, compelling us to develop newways of delivering care, adapted to the new realities of the world around us (5). Face to face consultations became the exceptions and remote consultations the new norm (6). Thousands of clinical and non-clinical staff have been redeployed from their usual workplace into new settings to support the pandemic response (7). In several countries around the world, the multi-skilled dental workforce has demonstrated that dentistry is ready to support the national health systems response in a time of emergency (8, 9). Members of the dental team were redeployed based on their set of competencies into various roles including medical history taking, phlebotomy, cannulation, suturing, and others (10). A properly trained and indemnified dental workforce would be ideally placed to support the delivery of the flu vaccination program for the next season (11). In 2009, during the H1N1 (swine flu) pandemic a precedent has been established when certain US states commissioned dentists to administer flu vaccines in order to increase capacity for delivery and meet the increased demand in a short time frame (12, 13).