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When Brad MacLeod went to a pharmacy in Ancaster last week to get vaccinated against COVID-19, he was overjoyed.
It’s his sixth shot.
“I walked in and was satisfied, it was very quick and easy,” said MacLeod, who lives nearby in Caledonia.
But that happiness turned to alarm the next morning when MacLeod checked his vaccination certificate and learned he had won the same bivalent COVID-19 vaccine he had won last November as the one he sought: the new monovalent vaccine targeting the XBB. 1. 5 subvariant.
MacLeod’s story, echoed by others on social media, has raised questions about what one epidemiologist sees as a “miscommunication” about Ontario’s vaccine rollout this fall.
“There’s so much confusion around emerging variants and new vaccines and which ones they protect, that it’s very tricky for experts to keep up with what’s going on,” said Colin Furness, an assistant professor in the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information and an infection control epidemiologist. We haven’t had any effective communication from the public about the vaccine, about the timing, about the options, we haven’t heard any of that. “
MacLeod said he called Shoppers Drug Mart where he won his last shot and told him he won the old vaccine because the new ones hadn’t arrived at the pharmacy yet. He also said he would have to wait six months before he could get the new one. vaccine due to recommendations on dose spacing.
“My arm hurt, thinking I got the vaccine for nothing,” she told Trillium. “I felt a little bit. Either way, is shooting yourself one hundred percent foolproof?No, still, I’ve had the vaccines for the past 3 years and felt a little cheated, a little robbed, a little cheated.
Loblaw Companies Limited, the parent company of Shoppers Drug Mart, issued a response to questions, saying, “Pharmacists deserve to inform patients about the vaccine they are receiving. “He said the new COVID vaccines are not yet available to patients. in their pharmacies, but the new Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are awaited.
The College of Pharmacists of Ontario (OCP), a regulatory body, said it won all recent court cases over COVID-19 vaccines, but is aware of social media posts that The Trillium has inquired about.
“And while we cannot verify its authenticity, it is vital to reinforce COVID-19 vaccination expectations among registrants,” the OCP said in an email. He says one of the university’s key recommendations is to “ensure that informed consent for the remedy has been obtained from the patient or their agent. “The OCP said it was sharing data with registrants on “safe vaccination practices. “
MacLeod, who is an elementary school teacher at a school on the Six Nations reservation, is Indigenous and, as such, has had prior access to COVID-19 vaccines as one of the known priority groups in the province.
He said it would be helpful for Ontarians to be proactively informed about which vaccine they will get or when they will get the new one.
“They think it’s the new vaccine, you know, obviously because we’re now in the fall of 2023 and they have the old vaccine,” MacLeod said. “Whoever is guilty of conveying that message loud and clear, and if it’s the provincial government, then a hundred consistent with the hundred, it has to be much clearer, much more obvious. “
Furness said that as this is a factor that affects everyone, communication deserves to come from within the province, however, local fitness teams have been left in charge.
“If you need to protect the population, you have to have a communication strategy, and that communication strategy needs to take into account the fact that other people don’t have expertise in this area,” he said, adding that without smart communication, it is highly unlikely to protect the population. It’s easy for misinformation to spread about vaccines and COVID.
It would be helpful, he said, to hear from the province’s chief health officer, Dr. Kieran Moore.
“It’s more than expected. I feel abandoned throughout the province. I feel abandoned in Public Health Ontario. Me I feel abandoned in our Medical Director of Health,” Furness said. “It’s very good that he goes out of his way to teach the public. . . to give them a greater understanding of what’s going on so they can make sound decisions. “
Public Health Ontario has referred questions about the launch to the Ministry of Health.
The provincial government issued a press release on Sept. 14 about the vaccines Ontarioers would have access to in the fall, adding flu vaccines, RSV and new COVID-19 vaccines.
The government said it plans to begin receiving doses of the new Moderna vaccine later that month, but that the first doses will be prioritized for high-risk teams and that “more focus points will be provided once doses are distributed in Ontario. “Old vaccines will also continue to be available.
Hannah Jensen, press secretary to Health Minister Sylvia Jones, said the province got the first vaccine from Moderna on Sept. 22 and is waiting for new Pfizer shots.
“Pharmacies are expected to get their first doses of the Moderna XBB vaccine this week (Oct. 10), those doses will be prioritized for high-risk populations and will be available to the general public on Oct. 30. “Jensen said. .
On Tuesday, Toronto Public Health (TPH) released a report on its vaccination efforts, saying it would begin offering COVID-19 vaccines at its constant vaccination clinics and that more than 4,250 new appointments would be scheduled for the new vaccine.
The public fitness unit said it will start with priority groups, adding citizens of nursing homes, seniors aged 65 and over, pregnant people, indigenous citizens, people with underlying physical conditions and children. Everyone will need to get a COVID shot, as well as the flu, if they wish, at clinics across the city will begin Oct. 31 and reservations will open Oct. 25.
Ottawa Public Health said it won its first batch of new COVID vaccines about two weeks ago and sent them to hospitals and long-term care homes. Then come the community clinics, and other high-risk people have to receive the first doses, and the rest of the public who will receive them from October 30.
Health Canada announced on Sept. 12 that it approved Moderna’s new vaccine targeting the Omicron XBB. 1. 5 subvariant. The Pfizer-BioNTech edition was approved on Sept. 28.
The new vaccines are monovalent because they target the Omicron XBB. 1. 5 subvariant, while older vaccines were bivalent because they target the original COVID strain and the Omicron strain, explained Dr. Jeff Kwong, a family physician and associate director at the University. . Centre for Vaccine-Preventable Diseases in Toronto.
“But studies have shown that XBB is still effective unlike those that emerged after XBB, so we’re going to propose its use this year,” he said, adding that other people will most likely get more coverage. versus existing strains with the new vaccine than those targeting older strains of Omicron.
A TPH spokesperson made this point.
“The updated XBB monovalent vaccines are the preferred vaccines this breathing season,” the spokesperson wrote in an email. “People vaccinated with the updated COVID-19 vaccine containing XBB. 1. 5 are expected to derive benefits from a greater immune reaction opposed to lately circulating strains, compared to previous formulations. “
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