Article content continued
Officials with Pfizer-BioNTech have said they are confident the vaccine will still be effective against it, but they, too, are studying it. On Boxing Day, the variant was found for the first time in Canada after an Ontario couple from the Durham region tested positive for it.
5. How soon can I get my vaccine?
Unless you fall into the most vulnerable category — long-term care and congregant living residents, health-care workers, essential caregivers and adults in Indigenous communities and recipients of chronic home health care — you will have to wait until at least the second quarter of 2021, which means April or later.
Even then, vaccines will arrive in waves and will be doled out on a prioritized, risk-based basis. Expect the elderly, those with health complications and essential workers to come first. Children under 16, the immunocompromised and pregnant or nursing women are not yet approved for the vaccine. They can still received it, Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization says, but only if, after assessment, potential benefits are deemed to outweigh potential risks and with informed consent.
6. Can everyone get vaccinated?
Not yet. Not enough information exists about vaccine efficacy and safety on pregnant women, people with compromised immune systems or children. That will come.
7. Do I have to get vaccinated?
Immunization is not mandatory in Canada and there appears to be little appetite to make it so in the case of COVID-19. However, there are circumstances under which immunization is already required. That is the case for students in Ontario and New Brunswick when it comes to immunization against childhood diseases.
