Thought of the Day - January 28 - Vaccine Registration

In case you missed it, here in BC vaccine registration will open in March. Until that time specific groups/settings will be targeted.

What is not so obvious is how folk 80+ who are not in a care-home will be addressed, especially those lucky folk who are not front-and-centre in the Health BC database, but I assume there will be more information coming in February. Also, there is no timeline as to when children will be addressed.

BC plans to vaccinate over 500k people by the end of March, with close to half having had a second shot. Around 125k vaccines have been administered in BC to date. Unlike with other vaccines, it seems you get a "special record of their immunization" rather than a normal entry in your vaccine book.

That said, delays in shipments of Pfizer, rumours Moderna may follow suit, and still no approval in Canada for AstraZenica, mean the projected program will see some delay. BC still plans to defer the second shots, usually given three to four weeks later, as a way of mitigating near-term supply shortage. This despite, as earlier reported, data from the leading country, Israel, indicating the Pfizer vaccine is only 30% effective after the first shot, not reaching the 90s until after the second dose.

A good sign these delays will have only a minor impact on the overall schedule is that the OMNI vaccine calculator has not adjusted its prediction that most Canadians will receive their vaccine in Q3: https://www.omnicalculator.com/health/vaccine-queue-ca.

Cheers

Cliff