The Ministry of Health announced last week that the AstraZeneca vaccine would be available from primary care providers in select regions across the province for people aged 60-64 starting on Saturday, March 13, including those in Simcoe Muskoka. That’s good news, says Dr. Melanie Mar, a local physician with the Algonquin Family Health Team.
“Because [the AstraZeneca] vaccine has been shown to be effective for those 64 and under, the thought is that they should receive this as soon as they can because they are going to get protection from it, and get it sooner than they will if they are waiting around for the other vaccines,” said Dr. Mar.
In Ontario, the AstraZeneca vaccine is currently only being offered to people aged 60-64 in generally good health based on a recommendation from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI). The NACI changed course in an announcement today to recommend it for adults of all ages.
The NACI’s initial recommendation was partly based on concerns about blood clots, but according to Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit medical officer of health, Dr. Charles Gardner, a provincial statement to public health indicates that to date “they haven’t seen evidence of this adverse event associated with AstraZeneca and the other vaccines as well… [and] the overall data even in Europe does not actually suggest that there’s an increased risk of thrombosis or clotting associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine. There have been some individual cases, but in order to really determine if it’s caused by the vaccine you’d have to see an elevation in cases compared with the rest of the population.”
The AstraZeneca COVID vaccine was the third to be approved by Health Canada, following vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna. Health Canada has since approved a fourth vaccine by Johnson & Johnson.
Dr. Mar concurs with the recommendation from the Ministry of Health that people take whichever vaccine they are offered.
“[All of the vaccines] have very good effectiveness for reducing severe disease and death,” she said. “There is some variability with the vaccines in terms of COVID-19 symptoms. Those who are generally well will be able to tolerate if [they develop symptoms]—they are likely to have a very low severity of disease…. You are going to get as good protection as you need now versus waiting potentially until late summer when your age group comes up.”
Within Simcoe Muskoka, the region’s nine family health teams are participating in the AstraZeneca vaccine rollout. In his weekly COVID briefing today, Dr. Gardner reiterated that patients aged 60-64 should wait for a call from their primary care provider’s office, rather than calling to request the vaccine. It’s not known whether the NACI’s updated recommendations will change how the AstraZeneca vaccine is rolled out in Ontario.
Dr. Mar said that although the slow vaccine rollout is frustrating for people, “it is encouraging that we’ve got a very coordinated public health unit…to be able mobilize this quickly as we actually get this supply. Plans have been in place, as soon as the supply lands on our doorstep we should be ready to give it… We have very motivated practitioners who are ready to get in line and help out with vaccinating their patients. I hope people feel reassurance that they’ve got a good team behind them who want to get them vaccinated as quickly as possible. The limiting factor really is the supply that we receive.”
The Ministry of Health recommends that everyone continue to follow public health measures, such as physical distancing, wearing a mask, and frequent hand-washing—even if they’ve been vaccinated—until herd immunity is reached
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