2/ The push for vaccine equity by pouring vaccines into 114 heavily impacted postal codes was largely successful (to date), with a higher proportion of people receiving a 1st dose in those areas compared to other neighborhoods.
Good news, but the job isn't done.
3/ Pharmacies will massively expand their administration of mRNA vaccines (Pfizer/Moderna) with an aim to have ~2500 online (in all regions) vaccinating by the end of the month.
This will significantly push our vaccination rates higher & help with the rollout.
4/ We need to rapidly include primary care (family doctors & nurse practitioners) in the rollout. There are plans to expand Moderna in primary care settings through May.
Could have been faster, but still a good move - they are experts in counseling, trust, lower barriers, etc.
5/ 2nd doses - see below.
I think there is room to expand this list but if that is the case, we slow down the first-dose-fast approach, and that ends the pandemic faster.
6/ Adolescents/young adults (is that the right word?) aged 12-17 will not be vaccinated until June.
It would be important to get 2nd doses into at-risk individuals (older, immunocompromised) faster.
Hopefully we have enough vaccine to simultaneously cover 2nd doses & youth.
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I have zero intention to be unkind to David here, rather it is an opportunity to touch base on the current state of social media/pubic discourse & our current trajectory (extending well beyond COVID).
1. Current covid vaccines continue to excel at preventing severe infection.
2. Vaccination provides decent protection VS infection (& transmission) but wanes considerably at ~2 months...not to 0%, there is still some protection. 🧵
3. The current (ancestral) vaccine provided strong protection VS infection/transmission to the ancestral virus (& Alpha, & to some extent Delta). Unfortunately Omicron is a bit different.
4. While we obviously don't want people to get infected, hybrid immunity is real & helpful.
5. Updated Omicron vaccines (BA.1 & BA.4/5) will be a useful addition. We just can't yet quantify the degree/duration of protection VS infection.
6. Other vaccines in the pipeline (eg. intranasal; pan-coronavirus vaccines) show tremendous promise but are not rolling out in 2022.
1/ Several important points on the monkeypox outbreak by Dr. Ghebreyesus:
"This is an outbreak that can be stopped, if countries, communities & individuals inform themselves, take the risks seriously & take the steps needed to stop transmission & protect vulnerable groups."
2/ "The focus for all countries must be engaging & empowering communities of men who have sex with men to reduce the risk of infection and onward transmission, to provide care for those infected, and to safeguard human rights and dignity."
🙂
3/ "WHO urges countries with smallpox vaccines to share them with countries that don’t. We must ensure equitable access..."
1/ There are many people & communities who would benefit from a 3rd COVID vaccine dose but have not received one (doses 1, 2, & 4 too).
There is also more emerging data demonstrating how 2 vaccine doses PLUS infection is as good as 3 doses in preventing severe COVID infection.
2/ "Two-dose effectiveness against hospitalization among previously-infected individuals did not wane across 11 months and did not significantly differ from three-dose effectiveness despite longer follow-up..."
3/ This is not to suggest people should be infected, but we can acknowledge that a significant proportion of our pop had a recent infection PLUS we have very high uptake for doses 1+2, & pretty impressive uptake for dose 3 among those at greater risk (still room for improvement).
But in some positive news, chronic symptoms of COVID in those under 18 is less common than initially thought (0.8%) & most have symptom resolution in 5 months.
This is a big study (>32K) including a control group.
3/ There is no “perfect” study. Every study will have limitations including this one, but this still helps shed light on the issue of long COVID in kids.