Canada has yet to provide clear guidance to fully vaccinated Canadians on what they can and cannot do safely as the number of second doses of COVID-19 vaccines increases across the country and travel restrictions are put in place to ease.
More than 60 percent of the population at least one dose and More than eight percent You have two, but as our vaccine release strategy shifts toward getting more Canadians fully vaccinated — national guidelines for safe activities to do are still lacking.
“It seems like we’re paralyzed in Canada,” said Dr. Nathan Stahl, a geriatrician at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. “We do not differentiate between those who have been vaccinated and those who have not.”
On Wednesday, the federal government announced that Canadians and permanent residents will be fully vaccinated across the border into Canada Soon you won’t have to self-isolate for 14 days If they have tested negative for COVID-19, but there is no definite direction on what they can do safely once they get here.
Without guidelines for fully vaccinating, some experts say Canada is missing an opportunity to give Canadians a roadmap toward something resembling normalcy, while others feel we need to proceed with caution to avoid risking our progress.
Travel rules are not clear
Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister announced Tuesday that fully vaccinated Manitoba residents will now be able to Travel within Canada without the need for self-isolation for two weeks After their return using the vaccination card as evidence.
However, nationwide, vaccine passports have yet to be released and federal officials have been unable to set a specific date for repealing quarantine rules for fully vaccinated Canadians except for saying on Wednesday that they were. Aimed at early July.
Unlike Canada, t– US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention It issued guidelines on March 8 for fully vaccinated Americans that said they can interact safely indoors without masks or physically distance themselves from others who have received both shots.
If you don’t provide guidance, people will make it on their own.– Dr. Isaac Bogosh
The CDC also said that those who took two doses can travel within the United States and internationally without testing, as well as skip quarantine completely upon return.
But three months later, Ottawa hasn’t offered similar guidance for fully vaccinated Canadians — despite saying it more than a month ago. Orientation was coming ‘very soon’ – Experts say that could lead to confusion across the country.
“I don’t think we’re thinking scientifically here,” Stahl said. “Are we going to wait until all Canadians are fully vaccinated so we can all move in together?”
Dr. Isaac Bogosh, an infectious disease physician at Toronto General Hospital and a member of the Ontario COVID-19 vaccine task force, says guidelines are needed now because the number of fully vaccinated Canadians will accelerate rapidly throughout the summer.
“If you don’t provide guidance, people will make it on their own,” he said. “It may be obvious that some people may throw caution to the wind and others may, quite frankly, remain unnecessarily locked up.”
“I think it’s fair to say that if you’re fully vaccinated and you’re hanging out with other fully vaccinated individuals, you can let your guard down. But I think we need some acknowledgment and some guidance from the public health senior leadership.”
Dr Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, presented some of them Unofficial guidelines for partially vaccinated Canadians on May 14, saying they can socialize with family and friends outdoors during the summer, but the guidelines for vaccination have not been fully updated.
A ‘fragile’ time to ease restrictions in Canada
But some experts say national guidelines for fully vaccinated Canadians may end up encouraging unvaccinated or partially vaccinated Canadians to stop following public health guidelines at a critical time, potentially leading to the risk of a COVID-19 outbreak in the coming weeks and months.
Giving advice to one group is really problematic because people are getting mixed up,” said Professor Riwat Dionandan, a global health epidemiologist and associate professor at the University of Ottawa. “How do you know in a crowd who has been vaccinated?”
Deonandan says he’d prefer to see Canada release guidance on what fully vaccinated Canadians can do once a large proportion of the population gets two doses, rather than offering individual-level guidance.
“It’s still a narrative about ‘me, me, me’ and not what that means for the population or the community or the country,” he said. “Society doesn’t work that way.”
Dr Alison McGuire, a medical microbiologist and infectious disease specialist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, says now is not the time to relax public health restrictions on fully vaccinated Canadians because hospitalizations and ICUs for coronavirus remain high in parts of the country. country.
“Our current control of the epidemic is very fragile,” she said. “In terms of both controlling the epidemic and trying to be fair about how we’ve all gotten through this, people who have taken two doses really need solidarity with the rest of us.”
McGuire says one factor that could jeopardize our ability to control levels of COVID-19 in Canada is delta variable It was first identified in India, also known as B.1.617.2. Early research shows that only a single dose of vaccines is about 30% effective against it.
“The minute we’re talking about Delta, one dose no longer counts as much,” she said. “Delta writes its own rules.”
New data from Public Health England Also frustrated and found that while two doses are more effective than one against delta, it also appears to be more transmissible and can cause more serious illness as well.
Stahl says that while there may be uncertainty about delta and other variables in the future, there is no better time than now to provide clear guidance for vaccinated Canadians.
“We have six months of data from around the world that vaccines are very effective in protecting individuals and stopping transmission,” he said.
“It really defies logic. Basically, it’s a Canadian problem. It’s like, ‘We’re all going to move as one because it’s not fair for some people to get ahead of others.'”
Canadians need a ‘road map’ to ‘return to normal’
Stahl says national guidance can help combat vaccine hesitancy by instilling more confidence in shots and motivating Canadians to fully receive their vaccinations by giving them a chance to spend much-needed quality time with loved ones.
“We need to show people what a pollinated life looks like. What is a carrot for pollination? Because there is currently no carrot – everyone is required to follow the same public health measures,” he said.
“I don’t understand the reluctance to accept the amazing efficacy of vaccines and not give people on an individual level the roadmap for what life looks like again.”
Watch | The health minister said fully vaccinated Canadians will soon be allowed to skip a hotel quarantine stay:
Patti Hajdu, Canada’s health minister, said the government hopes to ease some restrictions in phases, starting in early July. 1:09
Bogoch said Canada should issue practical national guidelines similar to the United States that allow small gatherings indoors with other fully vaccinated individuals where the risk of COVID-19 infection is “minimal,” and that grandparents incubate their unvaccinated grandchildren.
“If you think about people who are fully vaccinated, a lot of them are very old and some of them may have limited life expectancy,” Stahl said.
“These are fleeting precious moments. We’ve seen this in long-term care homes, but it also exists within the community. How many father’s days, mother’s days and birthdays do people have when they are in their 90s or late 80s?”
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