Infectious disease specialist Dr. Isaac Bogoch described the health agency’s decision as an “historic moment” for the country.
“It is OK to stop along the path and pause for a minute and take a moment to acknowledge that this is an incredible moment in time and just to really acknowledge the people who have put in so much effort to create and produce and study these vaccines,” he told CTV News Channel on Wednesday.
The vaccine developed by the American firm Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech is the first candidate to receive the green light for distribution in Canada. The approval by Health Canada comes just a day after the U.K. began inoculating its eldest citizens with the same vaccine – the first Western country to do so.
U.S. and European Union regulators are expected to follow suit and approve the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in the coming days or weeks as well.
Bogoch said the scientific community has come a long way since they first learned of the novel coronavirus in late 2019, and he’s looking forward to seeing the safe distribution of these vaccines in the coming months.
“To watch how these vaccines are rolled out in a meaningful, equitable, data-driven manner to really help us get this under control here in Canada,” he said.
Dr. Jelena Vojicic, Pfizer Canada’s vaccines medical lead, told CTV National News Medical Correspondent Avis Favaro that she’s proud to have been involved in the development of the vaccine.
“It is months of work at risk, right? And when you see something as encouraging as the data that came through, you know, one cannot help but tear up…it does get emotional,” she said.
“It’s really a historic moment for the science. This might change the way we do clinical trials and vaccine trials. New technologies are enabling us to do things differently so this is really unprecedented.”
CTV News’ infectious disease specialist Dr. Abdu Sharkawy agreed the approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was a “monumental, exciting landmark moment in our response to the pandemic.” He said many in the medical profession were “pleasantly surprised” by the announcement on Wednesday.
“I have confidence that Health Canada has done this with their due diligence in mind and I think it’s up to us to make sure that the rollout strategy is executed appropriately,” he told CTV News Channel on Wednesday.
‘THE VACCINE IS NOT GOING TO BE A SILVER BULLET’
Sharkawy also stressed that this is only the beginning of a “very long journey” to bringing the virus under control and that Canadians will have to continue to adhere to public health measures for a while longer.
Dr. Sumon Chakrabarti, an infectious disease specialist, echoed that sentiment and asked Canadians to be patient during the vaccine rollout.
“The virus is still with us,” he said. “Yes, we’ll start to relax at some point in 2021, but we still have to remember to keep our contacts low, physical distancing, mask wearing, and hand washing. We have to do that for the next little bit.
“The vaccine is not going to be a silver bullet.”
Dr. Joe Vipond, an emergency room physician at Rockyview General Hospital in Calgary, said the approval of a vaccine in Canada is a “light at the end of the tunnel,” but the country still has a lot of “dark paths” to travel through first before it can reach it. He said the vaccine distribution will be a key component.
“It’s only to come out in dribs and drabs and so we’re going to have to be very targeted in who is getting it first,” he told CTV News Channel on Wednesday.
Vipond also said they will have to combat “vaccine hesitancy” and misinformation about the shots in order to ensure people get vaccinated.
“People need to understand that science works,” he said. “Vaccines have saved more lives than any other single health intervention in the history of mankind and I suspect this will be no different.”
Chakrabarti said that authorities will have to provide complete transparency about the vaccines to reassure the population and fight misinformation. He cited the example of two individuals in the U.K. who had an allergic reaction after they received the vaccine.
“These adverse events can happen. It’s important to analyze why it happened, if it happened in individuals, and if it was because of the vaccine,” he said. “We’re going to be looking at these [cases] very, very closely… but that doesn’t mean that we can’t give the vaccine, we just have to realize why it happened and be careful with it.”
Sharkawy said he expects they will hear of more cases of individuals who don’t tolerate one vaccine over another, which is why he said it’s a good thing Canada has contracts to procure multiple vaccine candidates.
“We’re going to need all of these vaccines ideally, so that we find a niche for different patient populations across Canada and hopefully accelerate the timeline towards herd immunity,” he said.
The first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine are expected to arrive in Canada early next week. The plan is for them to be administered at 14 delivery sites in major cities across the country soon after their arrival.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
