Now that COVID-19 vaccines have started arriving in Canada, where’s the national public awareness campaign around their safety and effectiveness?
It’s a question public health experts have been asking as vaccinations have begun for high-risk populations, with access for the general public likely to start in the spring.
“You always want to start this stuff sooner rather than later,” said Dr. Nitin Mohan, a physician epidemiologist and partner at ETIO Public Health Consultants, on the need for a public awareness campaign.
“In public health, everything we do is prevention-based first and foremost, so preventing folks from getting to the point where they have serious doubts is what we should be doing.”
Two coronavirus vaccines have so far been approved for use in Canada, both in December — the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which is considered 95 per cent effective one week after the second dose, and the two-dose Moderna vaccine, considered 94 per cent effective two weeks after the second dose.
So far the vaccines have mainly been used on health-care workers and residents of long-term care, given their limited supply. But as the number of vaccines available in Canada grows in the coming months, experts say it’s crucial that a campaign also be rolled out to ensure Canadians are getting the right information.
Not only that, but the messaging must be clear, consistent and very easy to understand, answering some of the questions people may still have around the vaccines.
“So much of my time is spent on social media answering these questions. Why is it my job?” said Raywat Deonandan, an epidemiologist and professor in the faculty of health sciences at the University of Ottawa.
Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada told the Star that a “mass campaign” is planned for the spring, although a budget estimate hasn’t been finalized.
In the meantime, a campaign for winter 2021 budgeted at $4.5 million “will include regular updates on vaccine distribution and administration, as well as advertising, outreach and social media marketing to provide Canadians with vaccine information, including facts and expert answers, and to address misinformation,” the agencies said in a written statement.
The statement pointed to work that has already been done on public education around vaccines, including Health Canada web pages with explainer videos and infographics, technical briefings for media and one-on-one interviews with top health officials, and examples of government tweets and Facebook posts.
Health experts say it’s necessary to move beyond traditional means of communication — and move fast — to combat vaccination hesitancy.
“We are in this whole new era of communication and technology, and we’re still using websites and press conferences,” Deonandan said.
The number of hardcore “anti-vaxxers” who distrust any information from government is relatively small, experts say, but there is a larger number of Canadians who remain hesitant about receiving a COVID-19 vaccine.
Survey results released in mid-December by the Angus Reid Institute showed 48 per cent of Canadians would take the vaccine immediately if that was possible, while 31 per cent said they would get it eventually, and 14 per cent said they would not take the vaccine.
As just one example of outreach, Deonandan suggested a podcast in which a well-known scientist could regularly answer questions about the vaccines.
Mohan said the government should be reaching out to community leaders and celebrities to promote the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines, and ensuring that communication materials are in a variety of languages to reach different communities.
“This is an area where the federal government absolutely has a role to provide guidance nationally. It absolutely falls under their purview, so I was hoping that we’d see more out by now,” he said. “Quite honestly, we should have had this ready before the vaccines even got here.
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“You want to build that baseline knowledge for folks who are understandably confused.”
Infection control epidemiologist Colin Furness said he doesn’t believe it’s too late for a public awareness campaign, but he hopes there will be consistent outreach to communities about vaccine awareness at the local public health unit level.
“Knock on doors, and especially in high-risk areas, reaching out to people in their own language, about what we’re doing and why — that would be helpful,” Furness said. “That’s probably better than subway ads.”
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
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