The spread of the Omicron variant has pushed some provinces, including Ontario and Saskatchewan, to offer anyone over 18 a booster shot three months after their second vaccination.
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The province should be prepared to abandon its plan to have eligible British Columbians wait six to eight months for a booster, says the head of the Vancouver Infectious Diseases Centre.
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The highly transmissible Omicron variant of COVID-19 is spreading rapidly around the world and “by January, it’s all going to be Omicron,” said Dr. Brian Conway.
The spread of the variant has pushed some provinces, including Ontario and Saskatchewan, to offer anyone over 18 a booster shot three months after their second vaccination.
B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix said this week the province would stick to its plan to roll out the booster to those 65-plus and others in “key priority groups,” like Indigenous peoples, first and then offer invitations to those in the age-based order they were vaccinated, starting with those in their 60s in the new year.
Dr. Bonnie Henry, B.C.’s public health officer, confirmed that plan on Thursday in a CBC interview, saying that while a third dose of the vaccine offers a “stronger neutralizing antibody response,” she is also considering that waiting at least six months from the second dose offers people a “stronger, longer-lasting protection” against variants in the future.
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“And we have to find that balance,” she said.
Dix said B.C. is following the recommendations of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization.
But Conway said the evidence is quickly evolving on how effective current vaccines are against the Omicron variant, showing they’re less effective than against Delta and other variants. This could mean that immunity against the new strain may begin to wane before six months.
Conway doesn’t question Henry’s theory that waiting longer would strengthen immunity, but he does feel the province should be prepared to change tack if double-vaccinated people become increasingly infected in the coming days.
B.C. should be prepared to shorten the waiting period to four months, said Conway, adding that the three months implemented by Ontario and Saskatchewan may be “too aggressive.”
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British Columbia’s COVID-19 cases are climbing, with 753 new infections and three more deaths reported Thursday. There are 3,878 active cases of COVID-19, with 184 in hospital, including 70 people in intensive care.
The Health Ministry said there are now 135 cases of the Omicron variant.
Fifteen per cent of eligible adults have received their third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 86.8 per cent of eligible people five and older have received their first dose and 82.5 per cent have their second.
In a Dec. 14 posting to the U.S. National Institutes of Health website, director Dr. Francis Collins wrote that the “two-dose series may not be enough to protect against breakthrough infections with the Omicron variant.”
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Other studies showed “a booster dose of the Pfizer vaccine raised antibody levels against Omicron to a level comparable to the two-dose regimen against the original variant,” Collins wrote.
“While efforts already are underway to develop an Omicron-specific COVID-19 vaccine, these findings suggest that it’s already possible to get good protection against this new variant by getting a booster shot.”
Henry told the CBC that the majority of British Columbians received their second doses in June to early August, which means the six-month period for most will be up in early February.
The health ministry failed to provide information requested on Thursday about how many booster shots the province could administer through its clinics and the 500 pharmacies (rising to 1,000 in January) it has enlisted.
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https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMic2h0dHBzOi8vdmFuY291dmVyc3VuLmNvbS9uZXdzL2NvdmlkLTE5LWItYy1zaG91bGQtYmUtcHJlcGFyZWQtdG8tYWJhbmRvbi1zaXgtbW9udGgtd2FpdC1mb3ItYm9vc3Rlci1kci1icmlhbi1jb253YXnSAaEBaHR0cHM6Ly92YW5jb3V2ZXJzdW4uY29tL25ld3MvY292aWQtMTktYi1jLXNob3VsZC1iZS1wcmVwYXJlZC10by1hYmFuZG9uLXNpeC1tb250aC13YWl0LWZvci1ib29zdGVyLWRyLWJyaWFuLWNvbndheS93Y20vZjMxMTdlZDYtN2JhMS00ZTY5LWJmNmMtOWY4NTQ2NTdmNjM5L2FtcC8?oc=5
2021-12-17 02:05:59Z
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