Despite recent optimism over reported results from COVID-19 vaccine trials, virologists say there is still a long way from lab bench to bedside.
“You would think by this stage of the pandemic we would be leery and skeptical of science by press release,” said Ross Upshur of the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health.
“The data that has been released was interim data,” said Alyson Kelvin of Dalhousie University. “The trials are still going on.”
Two companies, Pfizer and Moderna, have recently announced they’ve developed COVID-19 vaccines that are 95 per cent effective. The news has juiced stock markets, induced politicians to call for expedited use and blown a breath of optimism to a world weary of masks and self-isolation.
But wait a minute, experts say.
A 95-per-cent effective vaccine doesn’t mean it completely protects 95 per cent of recipients. It means recipients have a 95-per-cent lower chance of contracting the disease than someone who didn’t receive it.
“It’s a relative comparison,” said Upshur.
As well, there’s a ton of data that has to be independently reviewed, none of which has yet been released. Researchers have to confirm if there’s anything that might have distorted the results.
“It’s important to see what the actual numbers were, to see if (for example) the people who were vaccinated with the placebo were at a higher risk of contracting the disease,” Kelvin said.
“We want to pick apart those parameters.”
She says Phase 3 trials, which involve large cohorts of up to 40,000 people, typically take two to three years. That’s because adverse effects sometimes take a while to appear — especially if they involve smaller groups within society.
Upshur points out 95 per cent is an exceptionally high success rate.
“It’s a new technology. It’s a new vaccine. We’ve never had 95-per-cent efficacy before and we’ve got a very bad track record with respiratory virus vaccines.”
Both Pfizer and Moderna have applied in the United States for emergency approval to use the vaccine. That would mean everyone in the trial gets a dose of it, effectively ending any way of monitoring its ongoing effects.
Mistake, said Upshur. A side-effect that only harms one in 15,000 people still adds up when you’re inoculating billions.
“We should let these trials run to completion.”
He points out every clinical trial is overseen by an ethics board, which has the power to end the trial and OK the vaccine if results are unequivocal. No such decision has been made for either company.
Public health agencies don’t need any more skepticism over the safety of vaccines, Upshur said.
“The World Health Organization has declared vaccine hesitancy as one of the top 10 threats to global health.”
Both scientists say the work done to prepare a possible vaccine for an unknown virus in less than a year is impressive work. Kelvin said the drug companies benefited from previous work from around the world on the Zika and MERS viruses.
“We wouldn’t be where we are today without that previous experience.”
Upshur said virologists understand the pressing need to come up with an answer to COVID-19. But he said more work is needed to ensure the cure isn’t, literally, worse than the disease.
“Everybody wants this over yesterday,” he said.
“But you can’t will away a pandemic and it would [be] foolish and imprudent to override our usual ways of thinking about safety and quality of vaccine.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 21, 2020.
HALIFAX – Ottawa is negotiating a $500-million bailout for Nova Scotia’s privately owned electric utility, saying the money will be used to prevent a big spike in electricity rates.
Federal Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson made the announcement today in Halifax, saying Nova Scotia Power Inc. needs the money to cover higher costs resulting from the delayed delivery of electricity from the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric plant in Labrador.
Wilkinson says that without the money, the subsidiary of Emera Inc. would have had to increase rates by 19 per cent over “the short term.”
Nova Scotia Power CEO Peter Gregg says the deal, once approved by the province’s energy regulator, will keep rate increases limited “to be around the rate of inflation,” as costs are spread over a number of years.
The utility helped pay for construction of an underwater transmission link between Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, but the Muskrat Falls project has not been consistent in delivering electricity over the past five years.
Those delays forced Nova Scotia Power to spend more on generating its own electricity.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
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.
