The arrival of a sixth wave of COVID-19 should prompt authorities to change their vaccination strategy, experts say.
According to them, it is time to adopt strategies to encourage the third dose, the vaccination of children and to prepare a greater campaign for the fourth dose.
The vaccination campaign had been very successful in Canada for the first and second doses of the vaccine against COVID-19. However, she ran out of steam for the booster dose.
In Quebec, if 87% of people aged 5 or over have been vaccinated twice (or the equivalent), only 53% of this population has gone for a booster dose.
In Ontario, the phenomenon is similar. The vaccination rate for people aged 12 or over is 91%. It drops to about 60% for the booster dose.
“We had put a lot of energy and creative spirit into the campaign for the first and second doses of the vaccine. We couldn’t replicate that magic for the booster dose,” says Dr.r Fahab Razak, member of Ontario’s COVID-19 Scientific Advisory Group.
According to him, the authorities will have to make sure to convince the population that the lifting of the restrictive measures does not mean that the risks of infection have diminished.
Two doses of vaccine are effective in preventing the most severe form of the disease. A booster dose decreases the risk of illness, even by the Omicron variant, recalls the Dr Razak.
The Dr Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease expert, says the situation is more reassuring than the data suggests. He points out that two doses of vaccine plus an infection provide the same protection as three doses.
However, we can do better, he adds, especially regarding the booster dose targeting the most vulnerable people. The Dr Bogoch laments that Ontario authorities have not made more use of behavior change experts for its vaccination campaigns.
“When you stop to look at what you’re trying to do, you realize you’re trying to change people’s behavior,” he says. It’s not enough to have a boring old doctor like me on TV convincing people to get vaccinated or a public health official announcing a policy change at 3 p.m. in the middle of the week. »
The Dr Razak suggests using family doctors even more to encourage vaccination.
“Family doctors have been the most unused resource throughout the pandemic,” he says.
Going through family doctors would be advantageous insofar as it would not require the addition of new external infrastructure.
“Of course, there is the lack of time. We can adopt the strategy of mass vaccination, but we don’t have to do it every year. It must be close to what we do against the flu, ”says the Dr Razak.
Get vaccinated at the library
The National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) is expected to release guidance on fourth doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in early April. Some are already preparing for it. The Dr Paul Roumeliotis, the Medical Officer of Health for the Eastern Ontario Health Unit, for example, is already preparing contingency plans to redeploy staff to vaccination clinics.
The City of Toronto has already held temporary clinics in subway stations and libraries.
Quebec began offering fourth doses this week to people over the age of 80, immunocompromised people and residents of long-term care homes.
For the Dr Roumeliotis, the main problem for the vaccination of children aged five to eleven years is the fear of parents.
“It has nothing to do with accessibility, because they can come to any clinic at any time,” he says.
Only 33% of children this age have been vaccinated twice in Ontario. Quebec does better at 46%, but this means that less than one child in two has received an adequate dose of vaccine.
The office headed by Dr Roumeliotis tries to raise awareness among parents by answering all questions on this subject during public meetings, seminars at school, on social networks and on videos.