COVID-19 pandemic will continue and rules won’t ‘go off’ after being fully vaccinated, expert says

While approximately 60 percent of Canada’s eligible population is fully immunized with the COVID-19 vaccines authorized by Health Canada, with each local jurisdiction at its individual point of relaxed public health measures, Canadians must still proceed with some degree of flexibility. caution as they increase their social contacts.

“Getting the vaccine doesn’t mean everything else goes out the window,” said Dr. Andrew Boozary, executive director of health and social policy at the University Health Network (UHN) in Toronto. Yahoo Canada.

Boozary said communication on the risks and benefits of vaccination should continue, in addition to messages of solidarity, stressing that just because some communities and neighborhoods have had widespread access to vaccines does not mean that it is is “finished” for everyone.

“I think that this element of solidarity cannot be lost, which we saw at the start of the pandemic, and we will have to draw on this same solidarity around vaccines and science to get through this pandemic,” he said. he declares.

“A pandemic for the unvaccinated”

Boozary added that we are potentially coming to a point where this is a ‘pandemic for the unvaccinated’ and while some choose not to be vaccinated, it is also important to remember that in this global pandemic, there are people in the world who do not have access to vaccines.

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“It’s easy, I think, for some people to want to believe ‘hey it’s over, we can move on, people have paid their dues’, but it’s not over and it won’t be. over for many people in different parts of the world. The severity of COVID continues to impose suffering. “

He added that the best thing people can do is get vaccinated to make sure we can achieve the level of immunity that we need, to make sure we can then move the vaccines to where they are needed. most needed in the world.

“If people want to talk about things like travel, we have to be familiar with terms like global vaccine equity, because if we don’t … nail those parts, the travel talks and the ‘back to normal, “that is will not be a reality,” said Boozary.

“This is the kind of room where we need to continue to see this message and this action unfold, which brings more vaccines to where people need them, both here at home and around the world. “

“The barriers are definitely still there”

When we look at the national vaccine administration, Boozary pointed out that “the barriers are definitely still there” in terms of who can actually go out and get the vaccine.

He pointed out that there had been a shift from mass vaccination clinics to pop-up clinics and low-barrier clinics, as well as mobile efforts, including to reach apartment buildings, churches, mosques and temples.

“We have seen incredible community leadership partnering with the hospital and the healthcare system to see truly remarkable results,” he said.

“But what we’re also seeing is that there continues to be internal inequalities in access to the vaccine and when you even look at some of the data from the first dose… it’s that it There are still about 20-22% of people over 70 and not getting their first dose in the most at-risk neighborhoods, and we continue to see that kind of unfairness play out for the second dose. “

In a press conference on Tuesday, Dr. Kieran Moore, Chief Medical Officer of Health for Ontario, noted that about two in ten eligible Ontarians have not received a single dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. .

“This, despite a great capacity across Ontario, a constant supply of all mRNA vaccines,” he said.

Clear message always needed

Boozary explained that there also continues to be challenges for people trying to figure out where and how to get a vaccine, especially when most of the information is online and primary care providers haven’t had it. opportunity to play an important role in vaccine delivery.

“We didn’t see the commitment to primary care that we really needed right from the start,” he said.

“The higher rate we have will allow our society to return to a more normal state, a post-pandemic era, with less fear as there will be less risk of the virus spreading in our communities, spreading to vulnerable populations, spreads long-term care facilities or overwhelm our health care system. “

“There have been efforts in recent weeks to make primary care play a bigger role, but we also know that a significant number of Ontarians do not have a family doctor, are not part of a family doctor. primary care team and so I think we still see these barriers taking shape.

Boozary added that this is related to a lack of consistency on the time employers protect for employees to get vaccinated.

“We have yet to see, I think, a real shift in communication with people who have not been vaccinated, whether by email, text or phone calls, or by going door to door with people. who they trust,… really make sure that the vaccination effort gets through to them, because that’s how we’re going to have to get through that last mile, ”he said.

“We know that the structural determinants of health continue to impose barriers and we have long had inequalities that really shaped what we saw at the start of the rollout, a mismatch between access to the vaccine and where we have seen the highest COVID. rate, and we’ve seen greater parity or greater equity happen … but there are still many, many people at risk who still have barriers to access.

He added that the lack of clarity on aspects of vaccine administration, such as mixing doses from different manufacturers, in addition to outstanding questions regarding travel and workplace requirements, lends itself to misinformation that can spread on social media, in particular.

“We’ve been talking about this since the start of the pandemic, how crucial communications are and how important public health messages are, in terms of the need for clarity and efficiency in addressing people’s concerns,” said said Boozary.

“It’s still so crucial and when there are communication errors … problematic.”