Health Canada is expected to make a decision on the AstraZeneca/Oxford University COVID-19 vaccine any day with an extra 1.1 million doses to be delivered by the end of March pending that approval. Several European nations are already discouraging its use among seniors, citing a lack of data.
When asked about the efficacy in older adults the day before, Canada’s deputy chief public health officer Dr. Howard Njoo said that Health Canada will review the data as it becomes available.
Earlier this week, AstraZeneca reported that a primary analysis of its Phase 3 trials showed an overall efficacy rate of 76 per cent after the first dose and 82 per cent after the second.
The two vaccines currently approved in Canada, the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA vaccines, both have efficacy rates around 95 per cent.
“We’ve been spoiled, our expectations have been set at that really, really impossibly high level and everything else is a disappointment,” said Dr. Alan Bernstein, CEO of CIFAR and member of the federal COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force.
“But, you know, 75 per cent is pretty good in real life.”
France, Sweden, Germany, Italy, and Poland have all issued recommendations stating the vaccine should be prioritized for adults under the age of 65, 60 — or even 55 in the case of Italy — according to Politico Europe and France 24.
In its decision, the EMA said most of the participants in AstraZeneca’s trials were between 18 and 55 and it needed more results in older participants “to provide a figure for how well the vaccine will work in this group” but it went on to say that “protection is expected.”
Director of geriatrics at Sinai Health System in Toronto, Dr. Samir Sinha, said his view is that Canadians should “get the vaccine that you can get your hands on as soon as possible because as soon as most of us are vaccinated, the more community protection we have and the better off we’re all going to be.”
Bernstein echoed those sentiments, adding “they all look very effective.”
He also explained that efficacy is just one factor — though a very important one — in deciding what makes a good vaccine.
6:08 The science of vaccines
The science of vaccines – Jan 16, 2020
What is vaccine effectiveness?
Vaccine effectiveness and vaccine efficacy are actually slightly different, as explained by Bernstein.
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Efficacy refers to the results from a controlled trial whereas effectiveness reflects how it performs in the “real world,” though both terms tend to be used interchangeably outside of academic settings.
“The reason it’s distinguished from a trial is trials are not in a sense ‘real-life’ in that the companies will choose volunteers that are healthy beforehand or try to choose volunteers that are healthy beforehand,” he explained.
He said it’s not that companies are “fudging the results” but that they don’t want results to be “confounded by people who are already very ill.”
In Phase 3 of a vaccine trial, scientists compare the results from a group of people who’ve received the vaccine to a group of people who have received a placebo.
“If 100 people got infected in the non-vaccinated group, we then looked over to the vaccinated group. We say, ‘OK, well, if all these people were circulating in the same community, there should be at least 100 people who could have gotten infected in the vaccinated group,’” Sinha explained.
“And when we find out that only five actually got infected, it tells us then that that vaccine is 95 per cent effective.”
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Sinha adds that 95 per cent effectiveness, for example, doesn’t mean that 95 people out of 100 people are protected, but rather that “it’s up to 95 per cent effective in every one of us who gets that vaccine. We just don’t know who might be the person, for example, who doesn’t have that level of effectiveness.”
“If we give you the vaccine, can your body respond to that vaccine to give you the protection that you need to fight off COVID?”
What impacts vaccine effectiveness?
The same weakened immune system that makes the elderly more susceptible to the virus is also what makes them less likely to have a robust response to vaccines.
“We’re all different genetically, which means we have different responses genetically in our immune system to insults like viruses. And some people overreact, some people underreact, and some people are in the sweet spot of reacting just right,” Bernstein explained.
“It’s possible that different ethnic groups, that people of colour, will respond differently to the virus or to the vaccine or both. And that has not been studied that carefully actually, yet.”
While everyone’s immune system is a little bit different, Sinha says typically young and healthy people have a “good, robust immune system.” Age or illness, for example, can weaken the immune system.
The fact that the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines appear to be as effective in older people as in younger people actually surprised Sinha.
“It must be this mRNA technology that actually helps to boost the immune systems of older people in such a way that they get the same level of protection as younger people,” he suggested.
“What we might see over time is other more traditional vaccine technologies, they may not be able to boost the immune system of older people or other more immunocompromised people to the same level.”
It’s possible, Sinha says, that we may get to a point where health care professionals would select a vaccine based on how well a particular person is likely to respond to it.
“And right now, for my older patients, I would highly recommend they get the Moderna or Pfizer vaccination because they seem to be 95 per cent effective.”
2:44 Coronavirus: U.K. trial to test combining Pfizer, AstraZeneca vaccines in 2-shot regimen
Coronavirus: U.K. trial to test combining Pfizer, AstraZeneca vaccines in 2-shot regimen
What else makes a good vaccine?
Outside of efficacy in preventing illness, Bernstein says the two other properties that matter are how long protection lasts and what impact the vaccine has on transmission.
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“So let’s say you have two vaccines, one’s 70 and one’s 90 per cent effective in the trials, but the one that’s 70 per cent lasts for five years, the one that’s 90 only lasts for six months,” he said as a hypothetical example.
“Which is a better vaccine?”
Sinha says that vaccines approved so far have been shown to significantly protect people from getting sick and dying but more data is needed to determine “if it can actually prevent your ability to transmit the virus to another person.”
Data released earlier this week from AstraZeneca showed that the viral load “in the body of people who were vaccinated is lower than in the placebo group,” which Bernstein says would be “consistent but not proof that it may be transmission is lower from person to person.”
In addition to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, Bernstein expects that the AstraZeneca, Novavax, and Johnson & Johnson/Janssen vaccines will be approved in Canada.
“And that’s not meant to influence Health Canada because I can’t. But that’s my own view, looking at the data — and the regulators will see more data than we have seen, than I have seen. They’ll see every little scrap of data,” he explained.
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“There may be things there that are, you know, deal-killers. But I think based on what we know and what the companies have released, I would say that all three will be approved.”
— With files from Global News’ Emerald Bensadoun and Reuters.
TORONTO – Roots Corp. may have built its brand on all things comfy and cosy, but its CEO says activewear is now “really becoming a core part” of the brand.
The category, which at Roots spans leggings, tracksuits, sports bras and bike shorts, has seen such sustained double-digit growth that Meghan Roach plans to make it a key part of the business’ future.
“It’s an area … you will see us continue to expand upon,” she told analysts on a Friday call.
The Toronto-based retailer’s push into activewear has taken shape over many years and included several turns as the official designer and supplier of Team Canada’s Olympic uniform.
But consumers have had plenty of choice when it comes to workout gear and other apparel suited to their sporting needs. On top of the slew of athletic brands like Nike and Adidas, shoppers have also gravitated toward Lululemon Athletica Inc., Alo and Vuori, ramping up competition in the activewear category.
Roach feels Roots’ toehold in the category stems from the fit, feel and following its merchandise has cultivated.
“Our product really resonates with (shoppers) because you can wear it through multiple different use cases and occasions,” she said.
“We’ve been seeing customers come back again and again for some of these core products in our activewear collection.”
Her remarks came the same day as Roots revealed it lost $5.2 million in its latest quarter compared with a loss of $5.3 million in the same quarter last year.
The company said the second-quarter loss amounted to 13 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Aug. 3, the same as a year earlier.
In presenting the results, Roach reminded analysts that the first half of the year is usually “seasonally small,” representing just 30 per cent of the company’s annual sales.
Sales for the second quarter totalled $47.7 million, down from $49.4 million in the same quarter last year.
The move lower came as direct-to-consumer sales amounted to $36.4 million, down from $37.1 million a year earlier, as comparable sales edged down 0.2 per cent.
The numbers reflect the fact that Roots continued to grapple with inventory challenges in the company’s Cooper fleece line that first cropped up in its previous quarter.
Roots recently began to use artificial intelligence to assist with daily inventory replenishments and said more tools helping with allocation will go live in the next quarter.
Beyond that time period, the company intends to keep exploring AI and renovate more of its stores.
It will also re-evaluate its design ranks.
Roots announced Friday that chief product officer Karuna Scheinfeld has stepped down.
Rather than fill the role, the company plans to hire senior level design talent with international experience in the outdoor and activewear sectors who will take on tasks previously done by the chief product officer.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, are set to resume today as a strike that has stopped most services drags into a second week.
No timeline has been set for the length of the negotiations, but Joe McCann, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they are willing to stay there as long as it takes, even if talks drag on all night.
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people unable to navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last Tuesday, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
Hundreds of drivers rallied outside TransLink’s head office earlier this week, calling for the transportation provider to intervene in the dispute with Transdev, which was contracted to oversee HandyDART service.
Transdev said earlier this week that it will provide a reply to the union’s latest proposal on Thursday.
A statement from the company said it “strongly believes” that their employees deserve fair wages, and that a fair contract “must balance the needs of their employees, clients and taxpayers.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
MONTREAL – Travel company Transat AT Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter compared with a profit a year earlier as its revenue edged lower.
The parent company of Air Transat says it lost $39.9 million or $1.03 per diluted share in its quarter ended July 31.
The result compared with a profit of $57.3 million or $1.49 per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue in what was the company’s third quarter totalled $736.2 million, down from $746.3 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Transat says it lost $1.10 per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $1.10 per share a year earlier.
Transat chief executive Annick Guérard says demand for leisure travel remains healthy, as evidenced by higher traffic, but consumers are increasingly price conscious given the current economic uncertainty.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
