B.C. planning 'spring booster' campaign for those vulnerable to COVID-19
British Columbia will be offering "spring booster" doses of COVID-19 vaccine to those at higher risk of serious illness, health officials announced Friday.
The province is recommending the booster doses to those ages 80 and older, as well as Indigenous people ages 70 and older, adults who are considered "clinically extremely vulnerable" and people receiving long-term care.
"Those are people who we know should get a booster in the coming months," said provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry at a news conference.
"The focus will be on protecting people at highest risk of severe illness," she said. "They are also the people, we know, that their immunity – the protection that they get from vaccine or from combinations of vaccine and infection – tends to go down more quickly. It doesn't get as high in older people, and it tends to wane or decrease more quickly."
Henry said B.C.'s plan "pretty much" matches the recommendations of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization.
One area where the province is departing "a little bit" from the NACI's advice, she said, is in suggesting that anyone age 60 and older – and any Indigenous person age 50 or older – who has not yet had COVID-19 consider getting a booster dose as well.
Henry said this advice is based on the province's monitoring of "seroprevalence" data, essentially studies that look at how many people have some level of resistance to COVID-19 in their immune system.
"For people under age 50, as many as 80 to 90 per cent of people have some combination of protection from both vaccination and infection," she said, adding that this type of "hybrid immunity" tends to last longer than immunity induced by just one or the other.
Henry also noted that waning immunity is not an "all-or-nothing" proposition. Even as protection against infection decreases over time, protection against serious illness requiring treatment tends to remain, particularly for younger people, she said.
The provincial health officer added that people who have never been vaccinated against COVID-19 remain "at significantly higher risk."
"I encourage anybody who has not received the vaccine to talk to a health-care provider, talk to your pharmacist," Henry said. "It is not too late to get the protection that is going to help you for the years to come."
For those getting spring boosters, the province's advice is to do so at least six months after their most recent vaccine dose or infection with COVID-19.
Henry said this means vaccinations for recommended groups will begin ramping up in April.
She also said she expects to see another mass vaccination campaign in the fall, ahead of the next respiratory illness season.
"That may, over time, turn into an annual booster or an annual dose that we'll have to have before respiratory season," Henry said.
"Or, in my more optimistic days, I hope that with our vaccine technology, we might get a pan-COVID vaccine within the next period of time and maybe we'll only need to have a dose that will last us for longer than five or 10 years. That part is speculation. We don't know yet, and we keep learning about this virus, but that's what I think we're heading towards."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
DEVELOPING Man sets self on fire outside New York court where Trump trial underway
A man set himself on fire on Friday outside the New York courthouse where Donald Trump's historic hush-money trial was taking place as jury selection wrapped up, but officials said he did not appear to have been targeting Trump.
BREAKING Sask. father found guilty of withholding daughter to prevent her from getting COVID-19 vaccine
Michael Gordon Jackson, a Saskatchewan man accused of abducting his daughter to prevent her from getting a COVID-19 vaccine, has been found guilty for contravention of a custody order.
She set out to find a husband in a year. Then she matched with a guy on a dating app on the other side of the world
Scottish comedian Samantha Hannah was working on a comedy show about finding a husband when Toby Hunter came into her life. What happened next surprised them both.
Mandisa, Grammy award-winning 'American Idol' alum, dead at 47
Soulful gospel artist Mandisa, a Grammy-winning singer who got her start as a contestant on 'American Idol' in 2006, has died, according to a statement on her verified social media. She was 47.
'It could be catastrophic': Woman says natural supplement contained hidden painkiller drug
A Manitoba woman thought she found a miracle natural supplement, but said a hidden ingredient wreaked havoc on her health.
Young people 'tortured' if stolen vehicle operations fail, Montreal police tell MPs
One day after a Montreal police officer fired gunshots at a suspect in a stolen vehicle, senior officers were telling parliamentarians that organized crime groups are recruiting people as young as 15 in the city to steal cars so that they can be shipped overseas.
The Body Shop Canada explores sale as demand outpaces inventory: court filing
The Body Shop Canada is exploring a sale as it struggles to get its hands on enough inventory to keep up with "robust" sales after announcing it would file for creditor protection and close 33 stores.
Vicious attack on a dog ends with charges for northern Ont. suspect
Police in Sault Ste. Marie charged a 22-year-old man with animal cruelty following an attack on a dog Thursday morning.
On federal budget, Macklem says 'fiscal track has not changed significantly'
Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem says Canada's fiscal position has 'not changed significantly' following the release of the federal government's budget.