Advisory panel lowers vaccine age limit to 30
ASTRAZENECA USE OUTWEIGHS RISK, UPDATE SAYS, BUT PROVINCES KEEP STATUS QUO
Canada's vaccine advisory committee now says Canadians aged 30 years and older can receive the Astrazeneca vaccine if they do not want to wait for the Pfizer or Moderna shots.
The updated recommendation comes as new federal modelling shows that COVID-19 restrictions could be lifted by midsummer if at least 75 per cent of adults receive their first vaccine dose and 20 per cent get their second jab by then.
“What we want is to vaccinate Canadians as quickly as possible,” said committee chairwoman Dr. Caroline Quach-thanh in announcing the expanded eligibility for Astrazeneca.
“However, if you are in an area where there is no COVID transmission, if you have no contacts with the outside, or if you're able to shelter through public health measures, then there is a possibility to wait for the MRNA vaccine.”
The Pfizer-biontech and Moderna vaccines use messenger RNA, or MRNA, to trigger an immune response, unlike Astrazeneca, which is a viral-vector vaccine that delivers a safe virus to teach the body to protect against COVID-19.
The committee initially recommended a pause on using Astrazeneca shots for people younger than 55 after reports of rare and treatable blood clots.
Health Canada released a safety assessment last week that showed the benefits of the shot outweigh the risks, which the committee said it also evaluated.
The committee said the clots are rare, and people have an individual choice if they would rather wait to take the Pfizer-biontech or Moderna vaccines.
With the next shipment of Astrazeneca not expected for weeks, however, many provinces such as Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba and Alberta said on Friday that they would maintain their current age restrictions (either 40 or 45 years old).
“We look forward to receiving future shipments of Astrazeneca, which will allow us to begin vaccinating more Ontarians in younger age groups,” Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott said in a statement.
“With approximately 337,000 doses remaining and future shipments not expected until May, we will continue to administer Astrazeneca to individuals 40 and over.”
Ontario reported its first case on Friday of a rare blood clot in a man in his 60s who received the vaccine, bringing the number of reported cases in Canada to four out of more than 1.1 million doses given, according to the province's top doctor.
The federal government revealed new COVID-19 modelling information Friday that shows there are signs the spread of the virus is easing as the country grapples with a devastating third wave and the largest provinces enforce strict lockdown measures.
The virus's reproduction rate (or the number of people infected by every positive case) dropped under one for the first time in weeks.
“These models give us hope, illustrating that there is a safe way to lift most restrictive public health measures like certain workplace and business closures by this summer if enough people get vaccinated,” said Canada's Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam.
“The more people that get vaccinated, the safer it will be to lift restrictive public health measures. This is why it is so important to lift up our sleeves and get vaccinated.”
As of Friday, nearly 30 per cent of Canadian adults had received at least one dose of a vaccine.
Tam also warned governments against reopening too quickly, citing a scenario where hospital capacity would be “widely exceeded” in the fall if most restrictions were lifted when only 55 per cent of adults had received one shot.
On Friday Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, received their first dose of the Astrazeneca vaccine in an Ottawa pharmacy.
During a separate press conference, the prime minister announced that the country had ordered 35 million booster shots of the Pfizer vaccine due in 2022, as well as options to purchase an additional 30 million doses per year in 2023 and 2024.
He also assured Canadians that all Astrazeneca shots received from the U.S. in recent weeks were safe following a National Post report Thursday that more than half those doses came from a factory that American authorities say was rife with quality-control issues.
This week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it would not allow the release of any vaccine made under contract at the Emergent Biosolutions plant in Baltimore, Md. — and still in the U.S. — until it's been tested further.
“I can highlight that Health Canada is always ensuring that any doses we receive in Canada are safe and effective. We have confirmed that the doses received from the United States a number of weeks ago have not been subjected to the challenges that have come up currently in the Baltimore plant,” Trudeau said.
“There is absolutely no danger of that for Canadians,” he continued. “There is no reason for anyone to be concerned.”
Procurement Minister Anita Anand said last week that Canada still expects to receive 4.1 million doses of Astrazeneca from all sources by the end of June.
Anand provided an update Friday about how many more vaccine doses are coming to Canada, which didn't include Astrazeneca, although talks continue with the United States about possibly receiving some of their supply.
She said the country can expect to receive around one million doses of Pfizer-biontech early next week and 650,000 doses of Moderna by mid-week.
Anand said to date, 13.7 million vaccine doses have landed in Canada.
THE MORE PEOPLE THAT GET VACCINATED, THE SAFER IT WILL BE TO LIFT RESTRICTIVE PUBLIC HEALTH MEASURES.