TORONTO —
Concerns over blood clots in patients who have received the AstraZeneca vaccine may further slow the vaccine rollout in Canada.
Provinces are reconsidering their rollout plans in light of new guidelines from NACI to avoid use of the AstraZeneca vaccine in people under the age of 55. NACI’s updated guidelines comes after 31 people in Germany developed blood clots after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine, nine of them died.
In Germany, 2.7 million people have received the AstraZeneca vaccine, this puts the chance of getting a blood clot at about one in 100,000, as opposed toaone in a million chance,according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The European Medicines Agency shared similar data, with 25 people out of 20 million developing blood clots.
“The odds of dying in a car crash are one in 100, to put that in perspective,” Rodney Russell, professor of virology and immunology at Memorial University of Newfoundland, told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview on Tuesday.
“It still puts it in the same range as dying by getting hit by lightning, but it sounds a lot worse,” he said.
The general adult population has a one in 1,000 chance of developing a blood clot in a given year. This is 100 times more likely than the risk associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine.
While the rare cases of blood clots are concerning, Russell is also worried about what this may do for Canada’s vaccine rollout. Canada is set to receive 1.5 million doses of the vaccine by April 4.
“The key to getting back to normal is for everyone to get vaccinated,” he said.
He said that reports saying that people aren’t showing up to get their vaccines indicates that there’s already a high rate of hesitancy among Canadians.
Pfizer and Moderna vaccines came out of the gate with 95 per cent efficacy rates, a number that was much higher than anticipated, he said. When AstraZeneca released their data with a lower efficacy, people began to prefer one over the other.
He said it’s important that people understand that each vaccine will have the same end result: preparing the body to create an immune response to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.
“It’s the protein at the end of the assembly line that gets seen by the immune system,” he said.
While the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which use mRNA technology, have a higher efficacy than the AstraZeneca vaccine, which uses viral vector technology, they all target the same protein.
The mRNA vaccines use molecules called mRNA to tell the body how to make the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, while viral vector vaccines use genetically modified virus to deliver the instructions on making the spike protein, according to Health Canada. According to the CDC, viral vector vaccines have been studied since the 1970s and most recently two viral vector vaccines have been used in Ebola outbreaks. They say that mRNA vaccines are newer with Pfizer and Moderna being the first of their kind approved in Canada and the U.S..
Russell said that it’s unfortunate that the efficacy of the various vaccines have been focused on, leading to the public to label Pfizer and Moderna as good and AstraZeneca as bad. Real-world data has allowed AstraZeneca to increase the efficacy data from 62 per cent to 76 per cent.
The news of lower efficacy was followed by Health Canada’s approval of the vaccine for use in people under age 65, an age determined by a lack of data, not safety issues, he said.
“Don’t forget, this is the vaccine that they mistakenly gave half doses in the phase three trial,” he added.
Since day one, AstraZeneca seems to be followed by bad news that Pfizer and Moderna have so far been able to avoid, and extra precautions are being taken to ensure the safety of the new vaccines.
“We’re trying to show how careful we’re being, but by doing that, then we’re pausing every week for different reasons, at some point people start to think ‘well this is garbage and shouldn’t be put in our bodies because every week there’s a new problem with it,’” he said.
If given the chance, Russell said he’d get the AstraZeneca vaccine today.
“I’d rather be vaccinated and watching for side effects than not know when I’m ever going to get a vaccine,” he said. “You still have 17 million people who’ve been vaccinated and not had any trouble.”
And there’s the trouble. Russell, like many Canadians, doesn’t know when he’ll be able to get the vaccine. He thinks it will be late summer, but in light of the latest data on AstraZeneca, it could be even later.
He said that a day or two of pauses may not cause a backlog, but if the pauses last for weeks it will cause delays and backlogs. Not to mention the potential for doses to expire and go to waste.
Canada’s rollout plan relies heavily on the use of AstraZeneca. The country has 20 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine on order.
“It has to increase hesitancy, which is going to slow down acquisition of herd immunity,” Russell said. “And it’s vaccines that are going to get us there.”
The data surrounding AstraZeneca has cast doubt on the vaccine since the start. It’s efficacy wasn’t as high, the third phase of the trial used incorrect dosing, it wasn’t approved for use in those over age 65, and then it was. For the general public, this may be a cause for doubt in the approval process, but it shouldn’t be,said CTV News medical specialist, Dr. Marla Shapiro.
“When I look to the immediate response and how nimble and flexible we are as data evolves, it really does tell me that we should have confidence in our advisory bodies who are monitoring and really have a very high bar of safety here and really want to make sure that we’re doing no harm,” she told CTV News Channel on Tuesday.
Anything that slows down the ability to vaccinate will result in a slower return to so-called normal life in Canada, said Russell.
It doesn’t help that different provinces are taking different approaches, leaving Canadians unsure of what to do. People will wonder why their province didn’t pause it, or wonder what their province knows that others don’t, he added.
A single voice from the government about why there is changing information could help ease some concerns.
“I do think we need a much better communication strategy, we need a single, solid voice explaining to the Canadian population where the information is coming from, why we’re responding the way we do. We need to be completely transparent,” said Shapiro.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A linebacker at Division II West Virginia State was fatally shot during what the university said Thursday is being investigated by police as a home invasion.
The body of Jyilek Zyiare Harrington, 21, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was found inside an apartment Wednesday night in Charleston, police Lt. Tony Hazelett said in a statement.
Hazelett said several gunshots were fired during a disturbance in a hallway and inside the apartment. The statement said Harrington had multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said they had no information on a possible suspect.
West Virginia State said counselors were available to students and faculty on campus.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Jyilek’s family as they mourn the loss of this incredible young man,” West Virginia State President Ericke S. Cage said in a letter to students and faculty.
Harrington, a senior, had eight total tackles, including a sack, in a 27-24 win at Barton College last week.
“Jyilek truly embodied what it means to be a student-athlete and was a leader not only on campus but in the community,” West Virginia State Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics Nate Burton said. “Jyilek was a young man that, during Christmas, would create a GoFundMe to help less fortunate families.”
Burton said donations to a fund established by the athletic department in Harrington’s memory will be distributed to an organization in Charlotte to continue his charity work.
West Virginia State’s home opener against Carson-Newman, originally scheduled for Thursday night, has been rescheduled to Friday, and a private vigil involving both teams was set for Thursday night. Harrington previously attended Carson-Newman, where he made seven tackles in six games last season. He began his college career at Division II Erskine College.
“Carson-Newman joins West Virginia State in mourning the untimely passing of former student-athlete Jyilek Harrington,” Carson-Newman Vice President of Athletics Matt Pope said in a statement. “The Harrington family and the Yellow Jackets’ campus community is in our prayers. News like this is sad to hear anytime, but today it feels worse with two teams who knew him coming together to play.”
DETROIT (AP) — Joe Schmidt, the Hall of Fame linebacker who helped the Detroit Lions win NFL championships in 1953 and 1957 and later coached the team, has died. He was 92.
The Lions said family informed the team Schmidt died Wednesday. A cause of death was not provided.
One of pro football’s first great middle linebackers, Schmidt played his entire NFL career with the Lions from 1953-65. An eight-time All-Pro, he was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973 and the college football version in 2000.
“Joe likes to say that at one point in his career, he was 6-3, but he had tackled so many fullbacks that it drove his neck into his shoulders and now he is 6-foot,” said the late Lions owner William Clay Ford, Schmidt’s presenter at his Hall of Fame induction in 1973. “At any rate, he was listed at 6-feet and as I say was marginal for that position. There are, however, qualities that certainly scouts or anybody who is drafting a ballplayer cannot measure.”
Born in Pittsburgh, Schmidt played college football in his hometown at Pitt, beginning his stint there as a fullback and guard before coach Len Casanova switched him to linebacker.
“Pitt provided me with the opportunity to do what I’ve wanted to do, and further myself through my athletic abilities,” Schmidt said. “Everything I have stemmed from that opportunity.”
Schmidt dealt with injuries throughout his college career and was drafted by the Lions in the seventh round in 1953. As defenses evolved in that era, Schmidt’s speed, savvy and tackling ability made him a valuable part of some of the franchise’s greatest teams.
Schmidt was elected to the Pro Bowl 10 straight years from 1955-64, and after his arrival, the Lions won the last two of their three NFL titles in the 1950s.
In a 1957 playoff game at San Francisco, the Lions trailed 27-7 in the third quarter before rallying to win 31-27. That was the NFL’s largest comeback in postseason history until Buffalo rallied from a 32-point deficit to beat Houston in 1993.
“We just decided to go after them, blitz them almost every down,” Schmidt recalled. “We had nothing to lose. When you’re up against it, you let both barrels fly.”
Schmidt became an assistant coach after wrapping up his career as a player. He was Detroit’s head coach from 1967-72, going 43-35-7.
Schmidt was part of the NFL’s All-Time Team revealed in 2019 to celebrate the league’s centennial season. Of course, he’d gone into the Hall of Fame 46 years earlier.
Not bad for an undersized seventh-round draft pick.
“It was a dream of mine to play football,” Schmidt told the Detroit Free Press in 2017. “I had so many people tell me that I was too small. That I couldn’t play. I had so many negative people say negative things about me … that it makes you feel good inside. I said, ‘OK, I’ll prove it to you.’”
VICTORIA – British Columbia’s Environment Assessment Office has fined Coastal GasLink Pipeline Ltd. $590,000 for “deficiencies” in the construction of its pipeline crossing the province.
The office says in a statement that 10 administrative penalties have been levied against the company for non-compliance with requirements of its environmental assessment certificate.
It says the fines come after problems with erosion and sediment control measures were identified by enforcement officers along the pipeline route across northern B.C. in April and May 2023.
The office says that the latest financial penalties reflect its escalation of enforcement due to repeated non-compliance of its requirements.
Four previous penalties have been issued for failing to control erosion and sediment valued at almost $800,000, while a fifth fine of $6,000 was handed out for providing false or misleading information.
The office says it prioritized its inspections along the 670-kilometre route by air and ground as a result of the continued concerns, leading to 59 warnings and 13 stop-work orders along the pipeline that has now been completed.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
