Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the only way Canada brings the pandemic to a close is for everyone to get vaccinated as soon as possible, amid a flurry of fear and frustration over new advice from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization.
NACI said Monday that Canadians who aren’t at high risk of COVID-19 may choose to wait until they can get a shot of either Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna, because they don’t carry the remote risk of a new blood-clotting syndrome.
NACI said Canadians under 30 shouldn’t be offered AstraZeneca or Johnson & Johnson at all, because their risk of severe illness or death from COVID is outweighed by the potential risk of the syndrome known as vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia, or VITT.
That directly contradicts long-standing advice from Health Canada to get the first vaccine you’re offered, and Trudeau said Tuesday that advice still stands.
“On a personal level, I am extremely pleased that I got the AstraZeneca vaccine a number of weeks ago,” he said.
“It was extremely important to me to be able to protect my loved ones, to protect my family and to do my part, to ensure that all Canadians get through this as quickly as possible. And that’s the reality. We all want to get through this pandemic as quickly as possible. And that means all of us getting vaccinated as quickly as possible.”
Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam said she understands that people may be frustrated or angry about changing advice but she said things change as science changes. She said there are different risk-benefit conclusions based on individual and community situations.
“But again, I’ll reiterate from our chief medical officers that the AstraZeneca vaccine deployed in the middle of a third wave has saved lives and prevented serious illnesses,” she said.
Some of the debate may not matter much. Canada is supposed to get up to 36 million doses of the mRNA vaccines in the next two months – 24.2 million Pfizer and between 10 million and 12 million from Moderna.
Comparatively, Procurement Minister Anita Anand said Tuesday there are only deliveries of about 1.6 million doses of AstraZeneca expected, though negotiations to get additional doses from a U.S. supply of that vaccine are ongoing.
There are no shipments of J&J even tentatively scheduled.
The first 300,000 doses of J&J arrived last week but are on hold because they were partly made at a Maryland facility with numerous safety violations. Health Canada is trying to verify the doses meet required standards.
Trudeau said Moderna’s next shipment of one million doses is now arriving in Canada Wednesday, a week ahead of schedule.
Canada expects to get 92 million doses of Pfizer and Moderna by the end of September, 18 million more than it needs to give two doses to every Canadian.
However, NACI’s advice did not land well among many medical professionals this week.
“It pains me to say this but it’s past time to take NACI’s recommendations with a grain of salt,” emergency physician Dr. Brian Goldman said on Twitter.
“For the good of your health, DO NOT be choosy when it comes to #covidvaccines. Take the first one you’re offered.”
Phil Emberley, a veteran pharmacist and acting director of professional affairs for the Canadian Pharmacists Association, said NACI”s advice is “disappointing.”
“I’m worried,” he said. “We need to get a lot of Canadians immunized in order to get over this pandemic. We really need Canadians to get vaccinated as quickly as possible.”
He said when you weigh the risks that come with COVID-19 against the risks of any of the vaccines Canada has authorized, preventing the virus is always the better choice.
Emberley said he got the AstraZeneca vaccine himself three weeks ago and has no regrets.
“Based on everything I know right now I would not make a different decision,” he said.
He said he’s also worried that this will make Canadians who already got AstraZeneca afraid to get their second dose. Of the 1.7 million people who did receive it as of April 24, only a few thousand got their second dose so far.
There are studies underway about mixing two different vaccines, with the first results expected later this month. NACI is expected to provide advice on second doses after those results.
Conservative MPs said the government needs to fix the communications disaster NACI has become.
“What Canadians need is clear, concise, and constant communications when it comes to vaccine use,” health critic Michelle Rempel Garner and procurement critic Pierre Paul-Hus said in a joint written statement.
The risk of VITT is estimated to be anywhere from one case in 100,000 doses given, to one in 250,000. But the syndrome is so new, there is still little known about what the real risk is, why it is happening and who might be most likely to develop clots.
Seven cases have been reported to date in Canada, all in people who received the AstraZeneca vaccine. Approximately 1.7 million people have received at least one dose of in Canada as of April 24.
As of April 23, 17 cases of VITT had been confirmed out of more than eight-million doses of the J&J vaccine administered in the United States. No doses of J&J have been used in Canada yet.
A second team of medical volunteers from Newfoundland and Labrador touched down in Ontario on Wednesday.
A team of three doctors and four nurses arrived on a military plane and will immediately be deployed to Peel Region – one of the hardest hit areas in the GTA.
They will be working in Brampton Civic Hospital’s COVID unit to provide supportive care.
“Provide supportive care to a group that hasn’t had a break in a long time — I think it means a lot,” said Dr. Art Rideout, a reconstructive surgeon on the team.
Michelle Murphy, a nurse on the team, said she was proud to be able to help at such a critical time.
“I’ve been to the third world and I’ve given back there. Nursing is my passion, I love being able to help people and today I’m going to give back right here, in my country,” she said.
The group is the second of three multi-purpose medical assistance teams (MMATs) of nurses and medical technicians deployed by the Canadian Armed Forces to help Ontario’s overburdened health-care system.
Ontario made a formal request to the federal government for assistance from the military and the Canadian Red Cross on April 26.
The first set of volunteers from Newfoundland and Labrador arrived last week and are currently serving in Toronto hospitals.
Canada is receiving a shipment of one million Moderna vaccine doses a week earlier than expected.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the announcement at his regular COVID-19 update, saying the shipment is getting picked up in Europe on Tuesday night.
He says the doses will arrive on Canadian soil by Wednesday morning. It will be the largest Moderna shipment to date.
Procurement Minister Anita Anand says Moderna is continuing to work with the federal government to come up with a more predictable delivery schedule.
Trudeau confirmed Canada will continue receiving two million doses from Pfizer each week in May. The country is on track to receive two million doses each week in the month of May and 2.4 million a week in June.
Asked about a possible vaccine passport for international travel, the Prime Minister said now is not the time to travel. However he says when the situation improves in Canada his government is working with allies to establish a system for proof of vaccination.
Trudeau mentioned the work is mainly with allies in Europe, saying he can’t speak for the U.S. on what requirements they will have when more normal international travel resumes
The Prime Minister also challenged people who are gathering to protest COVID-19 public health measures. He says the protests are making the problem worse, arguing the demonstrations only spread the virus further and prolong the measures that are being protested.
Meanwhile, there continues to be backlash against the most recent comments from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI).
Trudeau reiterated that every vaccine being offered is safe and works in the battle against COVID-19.
“We need to get our shots as quickly as possible,” says Trudeau. “I can reinforce once again that every single vaccine available in Canada has been approved by Health Canada as being safe and effective.”
NACI said Monday that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are “preferred” and that Canadians should weigh the risks of waiting for one of them before deciding whether to take a more immediate jab of either of the other two approved for use in Canada.
The panel’s advice contradicts Health Canada’s long-standing recommendation that the best vaccine is the first one available.
Conservatives are calling for clarity, and doctors and the Canadian Pharmacists Association worry the contradicting advice will only lead to more vaccine hesitancy.
With files from the Canadian Press.
A five-year-old boy has died after being struck by a vehicle while riding a bicycle in Mississauga.
Peel police were called to Hurontario Street and Elm Drive just after 5:30 p.m.
The child suffered life-threatening injuries and was rushed to hospital. He was pronounced dead in hospital.
The driver involved remained on the scene. Police say the initial investigation found the child was attempting to cross the road on a bicycle while the vehicle was travelling northbound.
Police say the father of the child was present when the boy was struck.
Hurontario Street is closed between Burnhamthorpe Road and Central Parkway Drive and is expected to remain closed for several hours.
May The 4th be with you! To celebrate Star Wars Day, chef Matt Basile from Fidel Gastro’s is sharing some of his favourite, out of this world recipes:
1. Light Saber Corn Dogs
What you’ll need:
- 8 all-beef hot dogs
- 8 sturdy popsicle sticks or skewers
- 1 cup fine cornmeal
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tbsp kosher salt
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 large egg
- 2 cups buttermilk
- 1.5 cups 2% milk
- 2 tbsp melted butter, cooled to room temperature
- Red food colouring
- blue or green food colouring
Method:
In a large mixing bowl, mix all your dry ingredients together, whisking the cornmeal, all-purpose flour, 2 tbsp brown sugar, 2 tsp baking powder, and 1 tbsp salt, until fully combined. Roll your hot dogs in the dry mix and set aside. This ensures the batter adheres to the hot dog when you fry it. In a separate bowl whisk your egg with room temperature melted butter. Add the buttermilk and 2% milk to the egg mixture and mix to combine. Slowly pour the wet mixture into your dry ingredients, whisking simultaneously until you have a smooth cornmeal batter. Split the batter in half and add red food colouring to one side and green to the other (for Sith and Jedi)
Preheat your frying oil to 375F
Using tongs, fully submerge and roll the hot dogs in your cornmeal batter until fully coated. One by one, carefully add them to the hot oil, moving them around slowly to ensure they don’t stick to the bottom of your heavy bottom pot. Fry the corn dogs for 3-4 minutes then flip them in the oil for another 2-3 minutes. When they have reached a golden brown colour (or the Jedi / Sith colour), remove them carefully from the oil with tongs onto a dish or tray layered with paper towel. Skewer each corn dog with a large stick.
2. Turkey Wings
What you’ll need:
- 4 large whole turkey wings
- 1L chicken or veg stock
- 2 onions cut in half
- 1 bunch fresh thyme
- 1 lemon cut in half
- Salt and pepper
- 4 cups flour
- Brown coloured BBQ sauce
- Side Hot sauce
- Oil for frying pan optional
Method:
Lightly season wings in salt and pepper. Add the cut onions and fresh thyme, lemon and stock to a braising pan and place the wings in the stock. Cover the pan with parchment paper and tin foil wrapped tightly. Set in oven at 275F and cook for 2 hours. Remove from pan and let cool to room temp then toss in flour. Lightly fry the floured wings at 375F until crispy then brush with BBQ and add side hot sauce to make chewbacca noises.
3. Death Star Scotch Egg
What you’ll need:
- 2 eggs + 1 egg
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup panko
- 3/4 pound ground pork
- 1tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp Chinese 5 spice
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1 cup hoisin sauce
- Chives or green onion for garnish
- Oil for frying
Method:
Place 2 eggs in pot of warm water and bring to boil. Eggs should be in water from start to finish for 10 minutes total (not just once boiling). Remove from water and immediately run under cold water for a few minutes until the eggs feel cool in the han and remove sell.
Season pork with salt, pepper, 5 spice, ginger, and onion powder and wrap meat around egg. Place in fridge for 1 hour and then roll meat covered egg in flour, then whisked egg mixed with 1/4 cup water, then panko. Set frying oil to 325F and let cook for 12-15 minutes. paint scotch egg with hoisin and garnish with cut green onions.
4. Sith Margarita (makes 2)
What you’ll need:
- 1.5 oz tequila blanco
- 1.5 oz triple sec
- 1.5 oz hounds black vodka
- 3 oz lime juice
- 1 tbsp egg white
- Ice
- 2 maraschino cherries
Method:
Add ice, tequila, vodka, tripe sec, lime juice and and egg white in a shaker and shake until cold. Pour into a glass and add 2 cherries
*Bonus if you can find black or or red sugar rim – add it in!
More than 5,000 people tested positive for COVID-19 after flying back to Canada since mandatory quarantine hotels began in late February.
Thus far, variants of interest or concern have been identified in almost one-third of those cases.
Data provided by the Public Health Agency of Canada lists 3,748 people who tested positive the day they returned despite having to show a negative COVID-19 test taken no more than three days before they boarded their plane.
Another 1,411 people came back positive for COVID-19 on the test required 10 days after they returned. Among all of them, 1,566 tested positive for a variant of concern and another 134 tested positive for a variant of interest.
More than 95 per cent of the variants of concern are B.1.1.7, first identified in the United Kingdom. It is now the dominant variant in Canada.
The travel numbers are relatively small compared to Canada’s total caseload — there were more than 342,000 cases of COVID-19 between Feb. 22 and April 29 — but provincial premiers are nonetheless pressuring Ottawa to do even more to keep faster-spreading variants from getting into Canada on planes.
“I’m extremely concerned about new COVID variants making their way into Ontario,” the province’s premier Doug Ford said Monday on Twitter after learning about the latest traveller statistics from The Canadian Press.
“Over 90% of new cases in Ontario are new variants. We’re seeing more young people in ICUs. It’s clear stronger border measures are needed.”
But Canada’s top doctors said Friday there is too much focus on the border and not enough on stopping COVID-19 from spreading within Canada.
“There seems to be a lot of interest and almost, I would say, a [preoccupation with the borders] but at the end of the day, if you look at the actual risk in terms of importation, the actual number of cases with respect to people crossing the border compared to what’s happening in the communities in many of the hardest hit provinces, I think that’s where the public health focus has to be,” said Deputy Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Howard Njoo at a news conference April 30.
As the new variants began emerging around Christmas, Canada first began requiring negative tests taken no longer than 72 hours before boarding a flight to Canada, then in late February, imposed mandatory hotel quarantines.
All international air passengers are required to spend up to three days in a designated quarantine hotel near one of the authorized airports in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Calgary. Once they get a negative test result they can return home to finish their two week quarantine there, but must provide a second test result.
Initially the second test was required on day 10, but it is now on day eight.
On April 23, Canada banned flights from India and Pakistan because of the high number of positive COVID-19 cases on those flights. In the two weeks before that decision was made, 165 flights carried at least one person who later tested positive, 43 of them from India.
Almost every flight that landed from India had at least one positive COVID-19 patient.
Overall about 1.5 per cent of international air travellers tested positive, according to the PHAC data.
The National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) recommended on Monday that provinces give the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to adults 30 years of age and older.
The NACI said the single-dose vaccine should be limited to people in that age group who don’t want to wait for the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines.
The advice is almost identical to that issued for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine last month and comes as both are suspected of causing a new and very rare blood clotting syndrome.
In Canada there have been seven known cases of vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia, or VITT, one of them fatal.
As of April 24, 1.7 million people in Canada have been given at least one dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
No J&J doses have been injected in Canada thus far, but in the U.S. they have documented 17 cases of the blood-clotting disorder in about eight million doses given.
Health Canada had paused its distribution of 300,000 J&J doses after discovering they were partly made at an American facility cited for safety and quality-control violations.
NACI also recommended that provinces use the J&J vaccine on populations that may have trouble booking a second dose if they were given a different vaccine.
Bill and Melinda Gates announced Monday that they are divorcing.
The Microsoft co-founder and his wife, who launched the world’s largest charitable foundation, said they would continue to work together at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
In identical tweets, they said they had made the decision to end their marriage of 27 years.
“We have raised three incredible children and built a foundation that works all over the world to enable all people to lead healthy, productive lives,” they said in a statement. “We ask for space and privacy for our family as we begin to navigate this new life.”
Last year, Bill Gates, formerly the world’s richest person, said he was stepping down from Microsoft’s board to focus on philanthropy.
Gates was Microsoft’s CEO until 2000 and since then has gradually scaled back his involvement in the company he started with Paul Allen in 1975. He transitioned out of a day-to-day role in Microsoft in 2008 and served as chairman of the board until 2014.
An overpass in Mexico City’s metro collapsed Monday night, sending a train downward, trapping cars under rubble and injuring at least 50 people, authorities said.
The incident happened around 10:30 p.m. local time on the metro’s Line 12, the construction of which has been plagued by complaints and accusations of irregularities.
Photos and video from the scene show people climbing ladders to help those trapped inside out of the train through windows.
Alfonso Suarez del Real, secretary of Mexico City’s government, told Milenio Television that the injured were being taken to hospitals.
Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum rushed to the area where at least one broken train could be seen along with dozens of rescuers searching through wreckage.
The province says people aged 18 and over and who live in a COVID-19 hotspot zone will be able to book to get their coronavirus vaccine starting at 8 a.m. Monday.
The Ontario government says an increase in the supply of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has allowed them to expand booking eligibility.
“With additional supply our government is increasing access to the COVID-19 vaccines in the communities hardest hit by COVID-19,” said Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health in a news release Sunday.
People will be able to book their appointment either through the provincial booking system or through municipal public health units that use their own system.
The vaccines will be administered at mass immunization clinics, the province said.
The government has identified 114 communities as priority areas for vaccines– and the province says they want to allocate around 50 per cent of vaccines to those areas during the weeks of May 3 and 10.
Eligibility will expand further on Thursday when online bookings open up to residents 50 and older, the province said. Others captured in that expansion include people with high-risk health conditions, those who can’t work from home including teachers and school workers and First Nation, Inuit and Metis people not previously targeted in earlier phases of the immunization drive.
Thursday’s planned expansion to those with high-risk health conditions include those living with obesity, developmental disabilities and treatments requiring immunosuppression among others.
All adults in hot spots have been cleared for immunization for some time, though they could not book through the provincial website. Instead, residents have been getting shots at pop-up and mobile clinics, sometimes standing in line for hours.
Ontario said it will return to per capita distribution for vaccines on the week of May 17.
If supply holds, the province expects to make those 18 and older eligible for a shot at mass sites provincewide on the week of May 24.
