CALEB NICKERSON
PONTIAC Jan. 20, 2021
Two of Pontiac’s elected officials are voicing their concerns over the provincial government’s plan for rolling out vaccinations across the province.
Quebec has taken an approach that doesn’t follow the recommended dosage schedule, planning instead to wait up to three months in between a first and second dose instead of the three weeks or 21 days advised by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna respectively.
According to Pontiac MNA André Fortin, the government’s plan is to . . .
immunize as many people as quickly as possible with the initial doses they received from the federal government. He said that there are risks to such a plan, and patients receiving a delayed booster dose need to be monitored closely to ensure their immunity doesn’t wane, a view shared by Dr. Caroline Quach, a member of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization.
“The fact of the matter is that nobody’s tested such a long period between the two, and there are experts on both sides of this issue,” he said. “Now there is a risk with what the Quebec government is currently planning, so we’re asking … if they are going down this route, follow very closely the conditions of the vaccinated persons to ensure they do remain protected … The strategy that Quebec is currently taking will require an additional level of vigilance and prudence, with everybody that’s received the vaccines, to ensure they are still protected as time goes on and they receive the second dose.”
“I think everybody understands that in our current situation, with the … number of Quebecers that are … currently affected, it can be useful to vaccinate as many people as possible in as quick a timeframe as possible, but we’ll want to make sure that the government does it properly and the level of detection doesn’t decrease along the way,” he added.
Pontiac MP Will Amos, who serves as the parliamentary secretary for science, put out a message on social media last week expressing concern with the government’s actions, which his staff also forwarded to local media.
“I’m not trying to play politics here … the cynic would say, ‘He’s just trying to pick a fight’, you know. And I don’t have a fight with the Quebec government. … I leave that for Andre, he’s the guy you’d expect to pick a partisan battle on this stuff,” Amos said. “Because of my role as parliamentary secretary for science, I felt it was important on this particular topic and make my views known, and more importantly, make sure that the views of Canada’s leading scientists were known.”
He pointed to a recent op-ed in the Globe and Mail written by three scientists that sit on Canada’s COVID task force that lays out some of the major issues with the CAQ’s strategy.
“Once you start talking about three months, I think that … one has to raise the question, is this following the science?” he said. “A second booster is critical, it serves two roles, it trains our immune system by improving the quality and quantity of the antibodies that are made and it makes them more durable. We need to make sure that when we’re vaccinating all Canadians who want it, at great expense in the context of a pandemic, that we need to make sure that we do it right. We don’t want to find ourselves in a situation where individuals who are vaccinated don’t have the same level of protection that was anticipated or don’t have the maximum amount of protection.
“The other argument that I think is important and the comment I want to make is, this stems right from the Globe and Mail article,” he continued. “Their arguments are very clear, they list seven reasons why we should make sure that the dosage … timelines are respected. One argument that they make is that in the context of variants, they comment that by relaxing the dosage regimen, it may result in individuals with lower levels of antibodies, and we may run the risk, they call it a great risk, of creating a perfect environment in which resistant variants could flourish and compromise the current effect of vaccines.”
He also pointed out that by not respecting the manufacturer’s guidelines, they may complicate the federal government’s negotiations with vaccine producers.
“This was confirmed by my colleague, Minister of Procurement Anita Anand … she’s the lead negotiator for Canada to obtain our vaccines,” he said. “The Government of Canada is seeking to procure tens of millions of doses, and as many as we can get in a very competitive context, in a context where the manufacturers of vaccines, they want to see their vaccine succeed as well. So, if the regimens which are approved by the national regulator, Health Canada, if the regimens are then subsequently altered, the timing between the two doses is altered, it has an impact on conversations and the provinces know this.”
He emphasized the safety of the vaccine and encouraged constituents to get vaccinated when the shots become widely available.
“It’s normal for there to be a degree of vaccine hesitancy, there’s always going to be a fringe of Canadians that are anti-vaxxers, there are some in the Pontiac, and they are a distinct minority,” he said. “Recent polling by Nanos, just out this week, indicates very, very clearly that the vast majority of Canadians are planning on taking the vaccine, some are a bit hesitant, but that’s normal … The regulatory process has been followed to a T. Our government will never approve any vaccine that is in any way shape or form dangerous to the public. The security is unquestionable.”
