A major chain of pharmacies has “temporarily paused” flu shot vaccinations amid supply issues that it says are provincewide.
In a statement provided to CP24 on Monday, Rexall said that it has “communicated to customers and patients that flu shots have been temporarily paused due to supply issues.”
The pharmacy chain says that while “all efforts” are being made to secure additional dosages “promptly” vaccine supply is ultimately “determined and allocated by the provincial Ministry of Health.”
The province has previously said that it has ordered 5.1 million individual doses of the flu vaccine this year, which is a 16 per cent increase on the 4.4 million doses it ordered in 2019.
Demand for the flu shot, however, has went up significantly amid the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in some shortages.
Justin Bates, who is the CEO of Ontario Pharmacists Association, told CP24 on Monday that there has been a 500 per cent increase in the number of people looking to book an appointment to get their flu shots at pharmacies compared to last year.
He said that the “unprecedented demand” is a “good problem to have” but has left many pharmacies scrambling to get their hands on enough dosages to continue offering the flu shot.
“There are very complex supply chain challenges and right now pharmacies have run out of the vaccine,” he said. “I know that Public Health Ontario is liaising with the Public Health Agency of Canada to try to get more doses into Ontario from the federal stockpile and that is going to be really critical because right now we have seen 4.8 million of the 5.1 million ordered already distributed out to the providers.”
Province has said shortages will be ‘temporary’
It should be noted that the province has maintained that any supply issues with the flu shot will be “temporary” and result from potential gaps in the delivery schedule.
That said in an interview with CP24 earlier on Monday, infectious disease specialist Dr. Issac Bogoch did express skepticism about whether everyone who wants to get the flu shot will be able to.
“I think at the end of the day, I’m still not entirely sure if everybody who wants a flu shot will get a flu shot. I certainly hope that’s the case but I think it’s clearly going to take time and a little bit of patience,” he said. “We’re not seeing influenza just yet but that means we should still be getting our flu shots and preparing for it and I think this is time to continue to check in with the pharmacies in your area, with your primary care provider because it looks like we’re seeing a staggered approach. We are seeing boluses of flu shots coming in and they’re being administered, they run out and a week later they get more, they’re administered, they run out.”
In addition to the shortages experienced by pharmacies, demand for appointments to get the flu shot at Toronto Public Health clinics has also been high.
Those clinics are now booked up until at least Dec. 8.
Some Ontario doctors have started offering a free shot that can protect babies from respiratory syncytial virus while Quebec will begin its immunization program next month.
The new shot called Nirsevimab gives babies antibodies that provide passive immunity to RSV, a major cause of serious lower respiratory tract infections for infants and seniors, which can cause bronchiolitis or pneumonia.
Ontario’s ministry of health says the shot is already available at some doctor’s offices in Ontario with the province’s remaining supply set to arrive by the end of the month.
Quebec will begin administering the shots on Nov. 4 to babies born in hospitals and delivery centers.
Parents in Quebec with babies under six months or those who are older but more vulnerable to infection can also book immunization appointments online.
The injection will be available in Nunavut and Yukon this fall and winter, though administration start dates have not yet been announced.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
-With files from Nicole Ireland
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Polio cases are rising ahead of a new vaccination campaign in Pakistan, where violence targeting health workers and the police protecting them has hampered years of efforts toward making the country polio-free.
Since January, health officials have confirmed 39 new polio cases in Pakistan, compared to only six last year, said Anwarul Haq of the National Emergency Operation Center for Polio Eradication.
The new nationwide drive starts Oct. 28 with the aim to vaccinate at least 32 million children. “The whole purpose of these campaigns is to achieve the target of making Pakistan a polio-free state,” he said.
Pakistan regularly launches campaigns against polio despite attacks on the workers and police assigned to the inoculation drives. Militants falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
Most of the new polio cases were reported in the southwestern Balochistan and southern Sindh province, following by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and eastern Punjab province.
The locations are worrying authorities since previous cases were from the restive northwest bordering Afghanistan, where the Taliban government in September suddenly stopped a door-to-door vaccination campaign.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are the two countries in which the spread of the potentially fatal, paralyzing disease has never been stopped. Authorities in Pakistan have said that the Taliban’s decision will have major repercussions beyond the Afghan border, as people from both sides frequently travel to each other’s country.
The World Health Organization has confirmed 18 polio cases in Afghanistan this year, all but two in the south of the country. That’s up from six cases in 2023. Afghanistan used a house-to-house vaccination strategy this June for the first time in five years, a tactic that helped to reach the majority of children targeted, according to WHO.
Health officials in Pakistan say they want the both sides to conduct anti-polio drives simultaneously.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of people with private health insurance would be able to pick up over-the-counter methods like condoms, the “morning after” pill and birth control pills for free under a new rule the White House proposed on Monday.
Right now, health insurers must cover the cost of prescribed contraception, including prescription birth control or even condoms that doctors have issued a prescription for. But the new rule would expand that coverage, allowing millions of people on private health insurance to pick up free condoms, birth control pills, or “morning after” pills from local storefronts without a prescription.
The proposal comes days before Election Day, as Vice President Kamala Harris affixes her presidential campaign to a promise of expanding women’s health care access in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to undo nationwide abortion rights two years ago. Harris has sought to craft a distinct contrast from her Republican challenger, Donald Trump, who appointed some of the judges who issued that ruling.
“The proposed rule we announce today would expand access to birth control at no additional cost for millions of consumers,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “Bottom line: women should have control over their personal health care decisions. And issuers and providers have an obligation to comply with the law.”
The emergency contraceptives that people on private insurance would be able to access without costs include levonorgestrel, a pill that needs to be taken immediately after sex to prevent pregnancy and is more commonly known by the brand name “Plan B.”
Without a doctor’s prescription, women may pay as much as $50 for a pack of the pills. And women who delay buying the medication in order to get a doctor’s prescription could jeopardize the pill’s effectiveness, since it is most likely to prevent a pregnancy within 72 hours after sex.
If implemented, the new rule would also require insurers to fully bear the cost of the once-a-day Opill, a new over-the-counter birth control pill that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved last year. A one-month supply of the pills costs $20.
Federal mandates for private health insurance to cover contraceptive care were first introduced with the Affordable Care Act, which required plans to pick up the cost of FDA-approved birth control that had been prescribed by a doctor as a preventative service.
The proposed rule would not impact those on Medicaid, the insurance program for the poorest Americans. States are largely left to design their own rules around Medicaid coverage for contraception, and few cover over-the-counter methods like Plan B or condoms.
