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Bivalent vaccine offers double protection, Piggott explains – The Peterborough Examiner

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The new bivalent vaccine against COVID-19 is available in Peterborough now as a booster shot.

At least 200 local residents from high-risk groups have already had the shot. Everyone 18 and older will become eligible to book an appointment for it as of Sept. 26.

On Thursday afternoon, medical officer of health Dr. Thomas Piggott went live on Instagram to answer questions from citizens about the new vaccine.

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Here are some highlights:

Q: What is a bivalent vaccine anyway? What does the word ‘bivalent’ even mean?

A: “It means it (the vaccine) has got two strains of COVID-19 protection in it,” Piggott said.

He said it protects against the original strain that began circulating in December 2019 (same as the vaccine we’ve had for the last 18 months), and it also protects against the Omicron variant BA. 1.

“In creating the protection against both, the anticipation is that it will be more effective and helpful in preventing infection.”

Q: So does that mean this vaccine will offer nearly absolute protection against infection?

A: Piggott said that isn’t exactly clear, yet.

When the first (monovalent) vaccines came out in January 2021, he said, studies showed them to reduce infection by about 95 per cent.

But that was when only the original strain of COVID-19 was circulating — no variants, yet.

“When some of the variants started emerging, they started escaping your immune system — and even with vaccination, there could be a spread of infection. There was a reduction (in infection), but it was much smaller: maybe about 20 to 30 per cent, instead of that 95 per cent,” Dr. Piggott said.

He added that scientists anticipate this new bivalent vaccine “will still be very effective” in protecting people against severe disease and death from COVID-19, but it’s unknown yet whether it will reduce infection by 95 per cent.

Q: Is the bivalent vaccine safe?

A: Yes, said Piggott.

“The safety is very much the same as with the monovalent vaccine, which is now known to be safe: More than 10 billion doses given worldwide. With this vaccine, we are confident that COVID-19 vaccines are safe,” he said.

Q: Can you get the bivalent vaccine in Peterborough yet?

A: Yes, Piggott said it’s been it’s been offered all week by Peterborough Public Health (about 200 local people had received it by Wednesday).

As of this week you were eligible to make an appointment if you are:

  • 70 years of age or older (born in 1952 or before)
  • A First Nations, Inuit, or Métis adult (18-plus) or a household member (18-plus) of someone fitting that criteria
  • A health-care provider (18-plus)
  • Pregnant (18-plus)
  • Living in long-term care, a congregate setting, a retirement home or elder care lodge
  • Immunocompromised (12-plus)

Starting Sept. 26, you will be eligible to receive a bivalent vaccine locally if you live in the Peterborough area and you are 18 or older.

Q: How soon after my last booster can I book my bivalent vaccine?

A: Piggott said the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) recommends waiting six months after the last booster shot before receiving the new bivalent booster.

“And that’s because there’s good evidence that protection (from your previous booster) should last six months,” he said.

“If it’s been more than six months since your third of fourth dose, then you should come forward for an additional booster this fall. And that will most likely be a bivalent vaccine.”

However, he also said it is possible to receive a bivalent booster sooner: the provincial government will allow it 84 days following your last booster.

Piggott said that if you have medical risk factors, for example — or you live with someone who does — you may want to speak to your health-care provider about shortening the time between a booster and a bivalent vaccine.

However that won’t be for everyone.

“Generally I still support the recommendation that NACI has, that the six-month time period is probably the right point to get a booster,” Piggott said.

Q: What if it’s been six months since my last booster but I’ve had COVID-19 lately? Should I book a bivalent booster now?

A: Wait a bit.

“The recommendation is to wait three months or more” after a COVID-19 infection before getting this bivalent booster,” Piggott said.

He said that’s because people are “less likely” to experience a recurrence of COVID-19 within three months of an infection.

Piggott also said that waiting awhile can offer the best protection possible from the vaccine.

“Waiting that three months is going to mean you’ll have a stronger immune response from the vaccine — and the protection will last longer,” he said.

Q: Can I get both an influenza vaccine and a bivalent COVID-19 booster this fall?

A: Yes, although Piggott said it’s best to wait two weeks after receiving one vaccine before receiving the other.

He also said influenza could resurge this season in Peterborough.

“Flu is likely going to make a significant comeback — so make sure you get your flu vaccine when it’s available, which will be later this fall.”

The full 33-minute video can be viewed at instagram.com/p/CiirYAZJNtC/

People can book appointments online at book appointments online at covid-19.ontario.ca/book-vaccine or by calling 1-833-943-3900. Participating local pharmacies also offer doses by appointment.

The health unit’s vaccine clinic is located on the lower level of Peterborough Square. The health unit requires mask to be worn at the clinic. Walk-ins are not being accepted for now.

There is a clinic for people 12 and older on Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Pediatric doses are only available next week locally from local pharmacies or health-care providers.

joelle.kovach@peterboroughdaily.com

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Kevin Neil Friesen Obituary 2024 – Crossings Funeral Care

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It is with heavy hearts that we announce the peaceful passing of Kevin Neil Friesen age 53 on Thursday, March 28, 2024 at the Bethesda Regional Health Centre.

A funeral service will be held at 2:00 pm on Thursday, April 4, 2024 at the Bothwell Christian Fellowship Church, with viewing one hour prior to the service.

A longer notice to follow.  

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Spring allergies: Where is it worse in Canada? – CTV News

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The spring allergy season has started early in many parts of Canada, with high levels of pollen in some cities such as Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.

Daniel Coates, director of Aerobiology Research Laboratories in Ottawa, expects the elevated amounts to continue next week for places, such as most of Ontario, if the temperature continues to rise. Aerobiology creates allergen forecasts based on data it collects from the air on various pollens and mould spores.

Pollens are fertilizing fine powder from certain plants such as trees, grass and weeds. They contain a protein that irritates allergy sufferers.

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Although pollen levels declined after a cold spell in some places, he said they are soaring again across parts of Canada.

“So the worst is definitely British Columbia right now, followed by Ontario and Quebec and then the Prairies and Atlantic Canada for the upcoming weeks,” said Coates in a video interview with CTVNews.ca. “We are seeing pollen pretty much everywhere, including the Maritimes.”

He said pollen has increased over the past 20 years largely due to longer periods of warm weather in Canada.

Meanwhile, the Maritimes is one of the best places to live in Canada if you have seasonal allergies, in part because of its rocky territory, Coates said.

With high levels of cedar and birch pollen, British Columbia is the worst place for allergy sufferers in Canada, he added.

“British Columbia is going strong,” Coates explained, noting the allergy season started “very early” in the province in late January. “It has been going strong since late January, early February and it’s progressing with high levels of pollen, mostly cedar, but birch as well, and birch is highly allergenic.”

Causes of high pollen levels

Coates expects a longer allergy season if the warm weather persists. He notes pollen is increasing in Canada and worldwide, adding that in some cases the allergy season is starting earlier and lasting longer than 15 years ago.

He says tree pollen produced last year is now being released into the air because of warmer weather.

“Mother nature acts like a business,” he said. “So you have cyclical periods where things go up and down. … So when it cooled down a little bit, we saw (pollen) reduce in its levels, but now it’s going to start spiking.”

Along with warmer weather, another factor in higher pollen levels is people planting more male trees in urban areas because they don’t produce flowers and fruits and are less messy as a result, he said. But male trees produce pollen while female ones mostly do not.

Moulds

Coates said moulds aren’t as much of a problem.

“They’ve been mainly at lower levels so far this season,” he explained. “Moulds aren’t as bad in many areas of Canada, but they’re really, really bad in British Columbia.”

In B.C., moulds are worse because of its wet climate and many forested areas, he said.

Coping with allergies

Dr. Blossom Bitting, a naturopathic doctor and herbal medicine expert who works for St. Francis Herb Farm, says a healthy immune system is important to deal with seasonal allergies.

“More from a holistic point of view, we want to keep our immune system strong,” she said in a video interview with CTVNews.ca from Shediac, N.B. “Some would argue allergies are an overactive immune system.”

Bitting said ways to balance and strengthen the immune system include managing stress levels and getting seven to nine hours of restful sleep. “There is some research that shows that higher amounts of emotional stress can also contribute to how much your allergies react to the pollen triggers,” Bitting said.

Eating well by eating more whole foods and less processed foods along with exercising are also important, she added. She recommends foods high in Omega-3 Fatty Acids such as flaxseeds, flaxseed oil, walnuts and fish. Fermented foods with probiotics such as yogurt, kimchi and miso, rather than pasteurized ones, can keep the gut healthy, she added. Plant medicines or herbs such as astragalus, reishi mushrooms, stinging nettle and schisandra can help bodies adapt to stressors, help balance immune systems or stabilize allergic reactions, she said.

To cope with allergies, she recommends doing the following to reduce exposure to pollen:

  • Wear sunglasses to get less pollen into the eyes;
  • Wash outdoor clothes frequently, use outer layers for outside and remove them when you go inside the house;
  • Use air purifiers such as with HEPA (high efficiency particulate air) filters;
  • Wash pets and children after they go outside;
  • Keep the window closed on days with high pollen counts.

Mariam Hanna, a pediatric allergist, clinical immunologist and associate professor with McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., says immunotherapy can help patients retrain their bodies by working with an allergist so they become more tolerant to pollens and have fewer symptoms.

“Some patients will need medications like over-the-counter antihistamines or speaking with their doctor about the right types of medications to help with symptom control,” she said in a video interview with CTVNews.ca.

Coates recommends people check pollen forecasts and decrease their exposure to pollen since no cure exists for allergies. “The best is knowing what’s in the air so that you can adjust your schedules, or whatever you’re doing, around the pollen levels.”

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Do you need a spring COVID-19 vaccine? Research backs extra round for high-risk groups

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Recent studies suggest staying up-to-date on COVID shots helps protect high-risk groups from severe illness

New guidelines suggest certain high-risk groups could benefit from having another dose of a COVID-19 vaccine this spring — and more frequent shots in general — while the broader population could be entering once-a-year territory, much like an annual flu shot.

Medical experts told CBC News that falling behind on the latest shots can come with health risks, particularly for individuals who are older or immunocompromised.

Even when the risk of infection starts to increase, the vaccines still do a really good job at decreasing risk of severe disease, said McMaster University researcher and immunologist Matthew Miller.

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Who needs another COVID shot?

Back in January, Canada’s national vaccine advisory body set the stage for another round of spring vaccinations. In a statement (new window), the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) stated that starting in spring 2024, individuals at an increased risk of severe COVID may get an extra dose of the latest XBB.1.5-based vaccines, which better protect against circulating virus variants.

That means:

  • Adults aged 65 and up.
  • Adult residents of long-term care homes and other congregate living settings for seniors.
  • Anyone six months of age or older who is moderately to severely immunocompromised.

The various spring recommendations don’t focus on pregnancy, despite research (new window) showing clear links between a COVID infection while pregnant, and increased health risks. However, federal guidance does note that getting vaccinated during pregnancy can protect against serious outcomes.

Vaccinated people can also pass antibodies to their baby through the placenta and through breastmilk, that guidance states (new window).

What do the provinces now recommend?

Multiple provinces have started rolling out their own regional guidance based on those early recommendations — with a focus on allowing similar high-risk groups to get another round of vaccinations.

B.C. is set to announce guidance on spring COVID vaccines in early April, officials told CBC News, and those recommendations are expected to align with NACI’s guidance.

In Manitoba (new window), high-risk individuals are already eligible for another dose, provided it’s been at least three months since their latest COVID vaccine.

Meanwhile Ontario’s latest guidance (new window), released on March 21, stresses that high-risk individuals may get an extra dose during a vaccine campaign set to run between April and June. Eligibility will involve waiting six months after someone’s last dose or COVID infection.

Having a spring dose is particularly important for individuals at increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19 who did not receive a dose during the Fall 2023 program, the guidance notes.

And in Nova Scotia (new window), the spring campaign will run from March 25 to May 31, also allowing high-risk individuals to get another dose.

Specific eligibility criteria vary slightly from province-to-province, so Canadians should check with their primary care provider, pharmacist or local public health team for exact guidelines in each area.

WATCH: Age still best determines when to get next COVID vaccine dose, research suggests:

 

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Age still best determines when to get COVID vaccines, new research suggests

It’s been four years since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, and new research suggests your age may determine how often you should get a booster shot.

Why do the guidelines focus so much on age?

The rationale behind the latest spring guidelines, Miller said, is that someone’s age remains one of the greatest risk factors associated with severe COVID outcomes, including hospitalization, intensive care admission and death.

So that risk starts to shoot up at about 50, but really takes off in individuals over the age of 75, he noted.

Canadian data (new window) suggests the overwhelming majority of COVID deaths have been among older adults, with nearly 60 per cent of deaths among those aged 80 or older, and roughly 20 per cent among those aged 70 to 79.

People with compromised immune systems or serious medical conditions are also more vulnerable, Miller added.

Will people always need regular COVID shots?

While the general population may not require shots as frequently as higher-risk groups, Miller said it’s unlikely there will be recommendations any time soon to have a COVID shot less than once a year, given ongoing uncertainty about COVID’s trajectory.

Going forward, I suspect for pragmatic reasons, [COVID vaccinations] will dovetail with seasonal flu vaccine campaigns, just because it makes the implementation much more straightforward, Miller said.

And although we haven’t seen really strong seasonal trends with SARS-CoV-2 now, I suspect we’ll get to a place where it’s more seasonal than it has been.

In the meantime, the guidance around COVID shots remains simple at its core: Whenever you’re eligible to get another dose — whether that’s once or twice a year — you might as well do it.

What does research say?

One analysis, published in early March in the medical journal Lancet Infectious Diseases (new window), studied more than 27,000 U.S. patients who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind COVID, between September and December 2023.

The team found individuals who had an updated vaccine reduced their risk of severe illness by close to a third — and the difference was more noticeable in older and immunocompromised individuals.

Another American research team from Stanford University recently shared the results from a modelling simulation looking at the ideal frequency for COVID vaccines.

The study in Nature Communications (new window) suggests that for individuals aged 75 and up, having an annual COVID shot could reduce severe infections from an estimated 1,400 cases per 100,000 people to around 1,200 cases — while bumping to twice a year could cut those cases even further, down to 1,000.

For younger, healthier populations, however, the benefit of regular shots against severe illness was more modest.

The outcome wasn’t a surprise to Stanford researcher Dr. Nathan Lo, an infectious diseases specialist, since old age has consistently been a risk factor for severe COVID.

It’s almost the same pattern that’s been present the entire pandemic, he said. And I think that’s quite striking.

More frequent vaccination won’t prevent all serious infections, he added, or perhaps even a majority of those infections, which highlights the need for ongoing mitigation efforts.

Lauren Pelley (new window) · CBC News

 

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