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Amid a significant summer COVID-19 wave, Health Canada is directing all provinces to destroy remaining supplies of existing COVID vaccines while it continues to review new ones.
Ontario and other province have been told they will likely receive updated vaccines in October. That will leave Canada with no available vaccines against COVID-19 for at least a month, something raising concern among health officials and others.
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The move is the result of a contractual agreement between Health Canada and vaccine manufacturers, according to government sources. New, updated vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna cannot be distributed until the remaining supply of older vaccines is withdrawn and destroyed. The new vaccines offer better against the COVID-19 strains currently circulating than the previous vaccines.
It leaves Canadians with no available COVID-19 vaccines until at least October, during what is turning out to be one of the largest summer COVID-19 waves of the pandemic.
It also comes during a time when few people have been recently vaccinated against COVID-19, although many have immunity from being infected.
In Ottawa, just 23 per cent of residents have had a vaccine since last September. COVID vaccines are considered most effective in the first few months after a shot. Boosters are usually given around six months after the last vaccine. COVID infection also offers immunity but that fades after several months.
Amir Attaran, a uOttawa professor who teaches in the faculty of law and the school of epidemiology, public health and community medicine, said the resulting situation will leave many Canadians without protection during an ongoing wave.
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“There will literally not be one person vaccinated in Canada in September.”
Attaran is among those asking why it is taking so long for Health Canada to approve new vaccines. He noted that the U.S. expedited the process and approved the updated mRNA vaccines last month. They were made available almost immediately because of the ongoing COVID wave that has killed up to 1,000 Americans in recent weeks. The vaccines are also approved in Europe. Attaran said there are provisions that would allow the federal health minister to approve the vaccines immediately if they have been approved in the U.S.
Attaran said he plans to take his family to the U.S. to get vaccinated with the updated shots – at a cost of $200 per vaccine.
Hannah Jensen, a spokesperson for Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones, said people who are at an increased risk for COVID-19 infection or severe illness should contact their primary care providers or Health811 for advice.
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