If the announced end of the vaccine passport from March 14 in Quebec surprises some experts, all agree on one point: the Legault government is thus playing a balancing act, trying to calm people down while maintaining an approach “ more cautious” and gradual than in Ontario.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
“It’s a bit fast, I think. We do not know what will happen with the epidemiological situation. But Quebec needed to calm things down with the many protests and popular pressure,” said Dr.r André Veillette, researcher at the Montreal Clinical Research Institute (IRCM).
As of Wednesday, the vaccine passport will no longer be required in supermarkets, at the Société des alcools or at the Société québécoise du cannabis. Then, on February 21, it will no longer be imposed in places of worship and funerals. Finally, on March 14, all businesses will no longer have to ask for it. “It’s an understandable plan as long as they assume things will continue to improve. You just have to not hesitate to change if things deteriorate, even if it’s difficult,” says Mr. Veillette.
The bell sound is similar for the DD Marie-Pascale Pomey, public policy specialist at the School of Public Health of the University of Montreal (ESPUM). “It’s going quite quickly and the fatigue of the population has obviously precipitated the decisions. In an ideal world, we could have waited until April before opening more widely. Admittedly, many people have contracted Omicron, as the government says, but we are not yet in a completely endemic cohabitation with the virus, ”she maintains.
We will have to be very vigilant about the message we send to Quebecers. The vaccine passport remains the measure that has made it possible to accelerate vaccination, which has been an incentive for many people.
The DD Marie-Pascale Pomey, from ESPUM
Postponed ?
At a press conference on Tuesday, the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, for his part assured that the lifting of the vaccine passport had nothing to do with the anti-sanitary rules demonstrations in Canada. ” Not at all. We do it because it’s the right time to do it, ”he replied.
At the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM), virologist and professor in the department of biological sciences Benoit Barbeau recalls that the vaccine passport will still be withdrawn with much more caution in Quebec than elsewhere. “I expected that we would stick to this measure longer in Quebec, quite frankly. But I’m happy to see that it’s being phased out, starting in the opposite direction of taxation, so the supermarkets. It’s more cautious than Ontario, which goes all at once from the 1er March,” he says.
Now, if there is an impact to monitor, it will be especially at the level of unvaccinated people.
Benoit Barbeau, virologist
That said, the virologist especially fears that the end of the vaccine passport will mean an even more marked slowdown in the vaccination campaign.
So far, 86.5% of Quebecers have received one dose of vaccine, 81.7% have had two and 46.8% of the population has now received their booster dose. Currently, Quebec administers an average of 27,000 doses per day, a trend that is down 33% over one week. Young adults are particularly unlikely to pick up their third dose. Barely 28% of 18 to 24 year olds have had their booster dose, compared to more than 80% among those aged 65 and over.
And the federal?
The three experts surveyed by The Press are also much more welcoming of the Trudeau government’s plan at the borders, which will put an end to systematic screening at airports, the obligation to use a PCR test, mandatory quarantine for children under 12 and to self-isolate while awaiting the result of a test on arrival, starting February 28.
“It’s much more reasonable. At the international level, there were not many of us to have such strong measures for a rather meager benefit. Travelers are not Omicron’s main vectors. It is quite logical that we change that, ”says the DD Pomey.
The Dr Veillette second in this sense, but nevertheless calls on Ottawa not to “neglect the additional protection of personnel on planes and airports”. “We will also have to ensure the quality of the antigenic tests that will be done, instead of the PCR,” he says. “Basically, the only downside to this decision is the possibility that new variants will be allowed in. But at the point where we are, Omicron has crossed Quebec, Canada and the entire planet. It’s not people from the outside who are going to change anything for the moment, in my opinion,” concludes Mr. Barbeau.