Tam Says Get Boosted Against COVID-19 Every 6 Months

Chief Public Health Officer of Canada Dr. Theresa Tam is seen via videoconference as Minister of Health Jean-Yves Duclos looks on during a news conference in Ottawa on Jan. 7, 2022. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)

Canada’s chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam is telling Canadians to get boosted within the federal recommended timeline or risk getting themselves and others hospitalized due to falling vaccine immunity against COVID-19.

“Across Canada, as more people go beyond the six-month time lapse since their last vaccine dose or infection, population immunity is falling and leaving us all less protected,” said Tam in a press conference on Oct. 7.

“Without up-to-date vaccination to help prevent serious illness, many people could land in hospitals due to COVID-19,” she said, adding that the shots “may also help reduce the risk of developing post-COVID-19 conditions or long COVID.”

Tam’s statement made reference to the recommendations provided by the National Advisory Committee on Immunization in its “Updated Guidance on COVID-19 Vaccine Booster Doses in Canada,” published on the same day.

She made the announcement during an update on Health Canada’s approval of Pfizer’s bivalent COVID-19 vaccine, which targets the original strain of the novel coronavirus, as well as the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants. The federal agency authorized Moderna’s version on Sept. 1.

Tam said the country’s booster shot uptake early last month “has remained quite low with just half of the population vaccinated with an additional dose.”

As of Sept. 11, government data shows a cumulative 49 percent of Canadians have had their primary series completed and at least one additional dose since December 2020, while 13.1 percent have received a fourth. The number of Canadians who have received two doses is 80.6 percent—over 30 percent higher than those who have received three doses.

In the last six months, only 15.9 percent of Canadians took up a booster dose or completed the two doses, the data added, while the uptake since Aug. 1 was 2.8 percent.

Concerns Over Side Effects

A survey by polling firm Angus Reid in July found that among Canadians who said they have received one or two doses of COVID-19 vaccine, just 17 percent say they will seek another dose, while three in five (60 percent) say no.

The poll also reported a “significant minority” (22 percent) of Canadians who believe keeping up with vaccinations “is not effective at protecting them from infection, serious illness, or death.”

An earlier study by Statistics Canada in January reported that about half of Canadians (56 percent) were hesitant to get a third dose because of concerns over long-term side effects.

Reports recently submitted to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) vaccine surveillance system suggested that cases of post-COVID-19 vaccine-linked heart inflammation among young males have risen.

The reports, presented to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices on Sept. 1, show that within seven days of getting the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, there were 14 cases of myocarditis or pericarditis among 102,091 males between the ages of 16 and 17. And of the 206,000 12- to 15-year-old males who got the same two-dose vaccine series, there were 31 cases within a week.

The incident rate for the 16- to 17-year-old age group was 137.1 per million while the 12- to 15-year-old group was 150.5 per million. Following the first booster dose, the figures jumped to 188 per million for the first group while the second group declined to 61.3 per million.

In the press conference on Oct. 7, federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said the COVID-19 vaccines “will boost our immune system and give us better protection against Omicron.”

“If it has been six months or more since your last dose, it is time to recharge your immune vaccination, immune system, and get a booster dose,” he said.

The health minister also urged all parents to get their children from six months to 8–11 years of age vaccinated with the primary series of COVID-19 vaccine “so that they can be better protected.”

Peter Wilson and Jack Phillips contributed to this report.