immunization

Saturday February 6, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday February 6, 2021

Trudeau tries to reassure Canadians vaccines are coming

January 28, 2021

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tried Friday to reassure Canadians his plan to vaccinate them is working despite mounting criticism his government is not getting vaccines soon enough.

Trudeau said there is “a lot of anxiety and a lot of noise,” but said Canada is still on track to get 6 million doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines by the end of March and 20 million in the spring.

“We are very much on track,” Trudeau said.

About 2.3 percent of Canada’s population has received at least one dose compared to more than 8.8 percent for the U.S. Most countries around the world have been struggling to vaccinate people quickly. But Canadians are comparing their country to world-leading Israel and the neighboring U.S.

Both Pfizer and Moderna have cut the number of doses Canada expected to get thus far, but Trudeau says he still expects to get 4 million doses from Pfizer and 2 million from Moderna by the end of March.

Trudeau said they are still very much on track based on what the chief executives of the companies keep telling him.

January 7, 2021

Canada didn’t get any Pfizer doses last week after the company announced a temporary reduction in deliveries so that it could upscale its Puurs, Belgium, plant to handle more production. That plant supplies all Pfizer shots delivered outside the U.S. Moderna has also had trouble scaling up production.

Trudeau reiterated that Canada has signed contracts with seven different vaccine makers and he expects Canada will get more doses per person than any other country in the world. He reiterated that everyone who wants to be vaccinated will be by September. Officials says they have agreements to import 10 doses per Canadian. Canada has a population of 37 million.

Canada does not have domestic vaccine production and the government has been getting shipments from Europe instead of the U.S., its closest ally.

Trudeau and President Joe Biden have spoken about Pfizer’s Kalamazoo, Michigan plant and Canada’s health regulator has approved that plant to supply the Canadian market, but any vaccines made in America might not be allowed to be exported despite a change in administrations.

The U.S. government has an agreement with Pfizer in which the first 100 million doses of the vaccine produced in the U.S. will be owned by the U.S. government and will be distributed in the U.S. Anita Anand, the Canadian federal procurement minister, has said the doses that are emerging from the Michigan plant are for distribution in the United States.

“We’re focused on ensuring that the American people are vaccinated, that we are getting as many shots in the arms of Americans as possible,” White House Jen Pasaki press secretary said this week. (ABC News) 

 

Thursday January 28, 2021

 

January 28, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday January 28, 2021

Canadian politicians struggle to come to grips with the global vaccine race

The global scramble to vaccinate the human race against COVID-19 is bigger than Canadian politics. But every Canadian politician no doubt understands the political and human importance of this country seeming to do well in this multinational competition. 

January 7, 2021

The result this week is anxiety and a rush to assign blame that has failed to produce easy answers to the central question of what, if anything, Canadian officials could be doing to procure more of what’s arguably the most precious commodity on Earth.

But this consternation among Canadian politicians might be obscuring a bigger question for the world: Is this really the best way to go about vaccinating 7.6 billion people against a common threat? 

The latest spasm of concern about Canada’s vaccine supply can be traced to a production facility in Puurs, Belgium, where Pfizer has been manufacturing one of the two approved vaccines for use in Canada. Pfizer has decided to retool that facility so that it can increase production. In the short-term, that means fewer doses will be available.

In response to Pfizer’s change of plans, Ontario Premier Doug Ford quickly declared that, if he were prime minister, he’d be on the phone to Pfizer’s top executive demanding the previously scheduled shipments. “I’d be up that guy’s ying-yang so far with a firecracker he wouldn’t know what hit him,” Ford said.

December 1, 2020

It stands to reason that if getting a plentiful supply of the Pfizer vaccine was as easy as getting up Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla’s ying-yang with a firecracker, nearly every leader on the planet would be doing so. But Ford got a chance to test his theory — a day later he spoke with the president of Pfizer Canada. If a firecracker was lit during that conversation, it has so far failed to change Pfizer’s plans.

In Ottawa, the consternation has been only slightly less colourful, culminating in an “emergency debate” in the House of Commons on Tuesday. 

The Conservatives argue that an ill-fated partnership between the National Research Council and China’s CanSino Biologics distracted Justin Trudeau’s government from pursuing better options — but Public Services Minister Anita Anand told the Canadian Press in December that Canada was the fourth country in the world to sign a contract with Pfizer and the first to sign with Moderna, the other major supplier of an approved vaccine. 

The New Democrats argue that the federal government should have negotiated for the right to domestically produce the currently approved vaccines — but that presumably depends in large part on the willingness of companies like Moderna and Pfizer to do so. 

November 21, 2020

A real effort to ensure Canada had domestic capacity to produce a pandemic vaccine likely would have had to have been implemented years ago.

In the meantime, even the definition of success will be up for debate.

On Monday, for instance, Conservative MP Pierre Paul-Hus complained that Canada was not doing as well as the Seychelles, which had delivered at least a first dose to 20.22 per cent of its population through January 25. By comparison, Canada’s rate of vaccination was 2.23 per cent.

But the tiny island nation has a population of 98,000 people (roughly the equivalent of Red Deer, Alta). In absolute terms, the number of people who had received a dose in the Seychelles was 19,889. Canada, meanwhile, had administered doses to 839,949 people.

On Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland countered that Canada was ahead of Germany, France, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. But three of those countries — Japan, Australia and New Zealand — haven’t yet begun their vaccination programs. And in two of those countries — Australia and New Zealand — COVID-19 is almost non-existent. (CBC)

January 28, 2021

This version with a wild error showing a 71 billion person figure in the number board went for more than a day until someone noticed and shared concern for confusion. My apologies for the mistake – Graeme MacKay 

Tuesday December 1, 2020

December 1, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday December 1, 2020

How the health system is addressing vaccine hesitancy, a looming hurdle in race to end pandemic

Tanya Hayles is not an anti-vaxxer. The Torontonian has made sure her eight-year-old son Jackson is up to date with the standard vaccines, and she, too, has been inoculated.

November 21, 2020

“There are diseases that we were able to eradicate as a result of vaccines,” she said.

The event planner, whose business has suffered as a result of the pandemic, would like nothing more than to see the end of COVID-19 as well. Given the choice, though, she said she wouldn’t be “first in line” for a COVID-19 vaccination.

She points out that side effects of the immunizations she and her son have received in the past are well-known to doctors. “They can say, ‘Oh, look for a rash around the needle point,’ et cetera.”

However, Hayles has concerns about whether such clarity will be available with a coronavirus vaccine that has been developed so quickly.

“Something this big, something this major, something this rushed — I would want to know more information before I put it in my body,” she said.

October 29, 2009

Health authorities say the benefits of approved vaccines far outweigh any risks. But international research shows that while most people anxiously await the availability of pandemic-crushing immunizations, a sizeable minority are unsure whether they’d get the vaccine, at least in the early days after one is approved.

As Canada readies itself to evaluate and eventually distribute COVID-19 vaccines, this vaccine hesitancy is becoming a key focus of the country’s top officials.

According to Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam, 65 to 78 per cent of Canadians have indicated they would get a COVID-19 vaccine. Tam said in an interview with CBC that it’s “critical” for public health to bring what she calls the “moveable middle,” or undecided Canadians, onside.

“I think that’s why it is a very key pillar of our approach in the days and weeks and months ahead, to be able to get that group of people the information that they need to get vaccinated,” she said.

November 26, 2020

“It is really important that as many people get vaccinated as possible to protect themselves,” Tam added, “but also others who are at higher risk.”

Alongside Health Canada’s commitment to study the data about the vaccines themselves, Tam said the government is preparing a multipronged campaign to inform the public about it. That includes working with social media companies, such as Facebook and Twitter, and even gaming platforms.

Canada’s public health team has learned that people who get their information via social media are less likely to get vaccinated than those who follow traditional media, Tam said. “So, we’ll be collaborating with similar platforms to get the message out to Canadians about the safety of the vaccine, and how the trials are going, and what happens in terms of the programmatic implementation as well.” (CBC) 

 

Thursday November 14, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday November 14, 2019

Help yourself and the health system — get a flu shot

If you have had the experience of going to a hospital in southern Ontario recently, especially if you entered through the emergency ward, there is a good chance you experienced first-hand what it’s like when hospitals are stretched to the limit.

ERs are jammed. Corridors can be lined with beds occupied by people waiting for a bed. Harried staff do the best they can, and they nearly always do a good job, but they, too, are stretched to the limit.

You may have waited hours in the ER, you may have received hallway health care. You have or are experiencing what it’s like in one of many Ontario hospitals that are operating at more than 100 per cent capacity.

Now try to imagine what it could be like when thousands of Ontarians, stricken by the flu, flock to ERs for treatment. Try to imagine the incremental strain on staff and facilities. Imagine the impact on already overburdened ambulance and paramedic care.

April 11, 2019

This isn’t fear mongering. It’s a real threat. Australia is often seen as a canary in a coal mine for flu season. Their season arrives earlier than ours does. When it’s bad there, it is often as bad here. This season, flu hit Australia early and hard. If it happens here, the president of the Ontario Hospital Association warns: “The system is quite fragile at the moment.”

Average citizens cannot fix what’s wrong with Ontario hospitals. But what if there was something you could do to reduce — by as much as half — your chances of ending up in a jammed ER or hospital corridor?

There is, and it’s not hard. It won’t cost you any money. It’s free. All you have to do is go to a pharmacy, your doctor’s office, a public clinic or another location that administers flu shots. Simply by doing that, you will be reducing by 50 per cent the chance of catching the flu. Add in good hygiene — following proper handwashing guidelines, for example — and you can reduce your chances even more.

Given all this, and the unpleasant alternatives, you might think the majority of sensible Canadians would get vaccinated against the flu. You’d be wrong. Experts say only about one-third of Canadians get flu shots. If you’re among the two-thirds who don’t, you’re part of the problem.

October 29, 2009

Why don’t more people get flu shots? In part, it’s the fictitious scare tactics of the anti-vaxxer movement. In part, it’s that the vaccine can sometimes cause you to feel ill, although not nearly as ill as if you got the real thing. But yes, sometimes side effects like fever and chills do happen as your body begins to make antibodies to ward off the bug. Some say no because they think they can actually catch the flu from the vaccination. You can’t. The vaccine has no live flu virus component — you cannot get the flu from the flu vaccine.

Public health officials say this year’s vaccine is deemed to be about 50 per cent effective. It’s not perfect, but is better than other recent years. And more importantly, it’s the best chance you have of avoiding the flu virus. It makes no sense — absolutely none — to say no to a flu shot. It’s actually irresponsible given the critical situation in public health. Be part of the solution, not the problem. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial) 

 

Thursday April 11, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday April 11, 2019

Ontario must take steps to hit vaccination targets and debunk measles myths

We’re losing the fight against measles. In this day and age, that’s an amazing statement. Three years ago we talked about them being almost eradicated. Now we’re losing the battle.

April 11, 2019

This week Ottawa reported measles cases. There have been outbreaks in British Columbia, in several U.S. states and in Europe. In New York City, a health emergency has been declared. 

And the worst part is that we know exactly why. A relatively small group of so-called anti-vaxxers is making effective use of — what else — social media to spread misinformation, which is leading to more and more parents not getting their kids vaccinated, and to more adults choosing not to be revaccinated.

A recent report from the Toronto Star shows that nearly 30 per cent of seven-year-old students in the Greater Toronto Area aren’t getting their shots. A vaccination rate of 90 to 95 per cent is needed to afford herd immunity, which is required to prevent outbreaks. Ontario is very far from that target. 

December 22, 2016

Actions are being taken. The Ontario Medical Association has launched a public awareness campaign, using traditional and non-traditional media, specifically taking at aim of some of the most common myths about vaccines. 

Myths that suggest measles and similar diseases aren’t really that dangerous. The fact is that complications happen in about 10 per cent of cases. For every 1,000 cases, one or two victims will die. Then there’s the widely-debunked claim that the measles vaccine causes autism. It doesn’t. There is no scientific evidence to support that claim. Large studies around the world have shown there is no link, and yet the life-threatening myth survives.

April 29, 2016

Or this: The idea that nosodes are a substitute for vaccination. Nosodes, also called homeopathic vaccines, are not a substitute for real vaccines. There is no scientific evidence to show they prevent infectious diseases. Nosodes are made from bacteria, viruses, tissue or other material from someone with a particular disease. They are so diluted there are no active ingredients left by the time they are administered.

Or this one: Breastfeeding protects babies from infection. While it offers some protection against certain types of infections, the protection is incomplete. Breastfeeding is not a substitute for vaccination.

February 6, 2015

And finally, this: We shouldn’t put foreign substances like vaccines into our bodies. It’s hard to believe anyone would fall for this, but they do. The germs that cause communicable diseases like measles are natural, but that doesn’t make them good. Plants and berries are natural things, but they yield some of the most poisonous substances. Vaccines, on the other hand, are made from natural sources, some from safely-altered germs. They stimulate our immune system in the same way the disease would, but without making us sick.

At this point, all the good work being done to educate the public isn’t stopping the new spread of measles. It may be time for tougher medicine.

April 30, 2009

There are two legal exemptions for not vaccinating kids. One is a medical exemption, which obviously must remain available. Another is non-medical exemptions, where parents must sign an affidavit saying vaccines conflict with their “sincerely held convictions.”

U.S. states like California, Mississippi and West Virginia have ended non-medical exemptions. And their vaccination rates have dramatically increased. Perhaps it’s time Ontario and other Canadian provinces did the same thing. (Source: Hamilton Spectator Editorial) 

Measles, disease, virus, vaccination, herd, immunization, vaccine, military