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Countries weigh need for booster COVID-19 shots

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COVID-19 vaccine booster shots will be made widely available to Americans in September, while several other countries including Israel, Germany and France have decided to offer boosters to older adults and people with weak immune systems.

As of yet, there is no consensus among scientists and agencies that a third dose is necessary.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Aug. 18 that current data does not indicate a need for COVID-19 booster shots, and has repeatedly called for a delay arguing that the most vulnerable people worldwide should be fully vaccinated before high-income countries deploy a top-up.

The following outlines the options countries and regions are considering on the issue:

UNITED STATES

COVID-19 vaccine booster shots will be made widely available from Sept. 20 to Americans who received their initial inoculation of two-dose COVID-19 vaccines made by Moderna and by Pfizer and BioNTech AG at least eight months earlier, U.S. health officials said on Aug. 18.

EUROPEAN UNION

The European Union’s drugs regulator said on Aug. 6 there’s still not enough data to recommend COVID-19 vaccine boosters.

Recent supply contracts with Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna have included the potential for the bloc to buy booster shots.

AUSTRIA

Austria plans to start COVID-19 vaccine booster shots on Oct. 17, nine months after the first group of people to get the shots received their second dose.

BELGIUM

Belgium has authorised the use of boosters – specifically mRNA shots – for immunosuppressed people. More data is needed before considering extra shots for the elderly and people living in nursing homes.

BRITAIN

Britain has begun planning for a booster campaign starting later this year after top vaccine advisers said it might be necessary to give third shots to the elderly and most vulnerable from September. It said it would buy 60 million more doses of Pfizer/BioNTech’s vaccine ahead of the possible booster programme, bringing its total order of the shot to 100 million doses.

BRAZIL

Brazilians should prepare for annual COVID-19 immunisations to reinforce vaccines, the head of public-sector laboratory Butantan said in May.

CAMBODIA

Cambodia started on Aug. 12 offering AstraZeneca booster shots to those who have received the inactivated virus vaccines developed by Sinopharm and Sinovac.

CANADA

The Canadian province of Ontario will begin offering third COVID-19 vaccine doses to vulnerable people as early as this week, its chief medical officer said on Aug. 17.

CHILE

Chile began on Aug. 11 administering booster shots to those already inoculated with Sinovac’s vaccine in a bid to lock in early success following one of the world’s fastest mass vaccination drives.

CHINA

COVID-19 booster shots should become available in China after the country vaccinates more people to provide broader protection against the disease, a senior executive at a Sinopharm unit responsible for developing COVID-19 vaccines told state media.

CZECH REPUBLIC

Some groups will probably need to get a third vaccine shot, Health Minister Adam Vojtech said on Aug. 17.

DENMARK

Danes with weak immune systems will be recommended to get a COVID-19 vaccine booster next week, the Danish Health Authority said on Aug. 20.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Dominican health authorities started distributing a voluntary third vaccine dose in early July.

ECUADOR

Ecuador will administer a third dose of the coronavirus vaccine to people with weak immune systems and will carry out tests to determine if the rest of the inoculated population also needs a booster, Health Minister Ximena Garzon said on Aug. 18.

FINLAND

It has not made a decision on the recommendation of a third dose but is expected to do so in August.

FRANCE

President Emmanuel Macron said France was working on rolling out third COVID-19 vaccine doses to the elderly and vulnerable from September.

GERMANY

Germany will in September start to offer a booster shot to vulnerable people, such as the elderly and those with weak immune systems. The shots will be mRNA-vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna regardless of what was used previously.

GREECE

Greece’s top medical advisers said on Aug. 23 vulnerable groups with underlying diseases should get booster shots. The booster shot with mRNA vaccines, if approved by the government, will be available in the first week of September, the head of the National Vaccination Committee said.

HUNGARY

Hungary has been offering an optional third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine from Aug. 1.

INDONESIA

Indonesia started giving booster shots produced by Moderna to medical workers in July and is considering extra doses for wider use.

ISRAEL

Israel in July started offering a third shot of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to people aged over 60 and to those over 50 from Aug. 13. Its booster campaign was extended to teachers and people over 40 and teachers on Aug.19, and to those over 30 on Aug. 24. It continues to administer extra doses to health workers.

RUSSIA

Health clinics in Moscow started offering booster shots in July to people vaccinated six months ago or more.

PHILLIPINES

The Philippines is allotting 45.3 billion pesos ($899 million) for COVID-19 booster shots under its 2022 budget, an official said on Aug. 19, even as health authorities have yet to conclude there is a need for a third dose.

SINGAPORE

Singapore said in May it was making plans for booster shots later this year or early next year, if necessary.

SOUTH KOREA

South Korea said in June it plans to secure more mRNA vaccines to use as boosters next year for its entire population of 52 million.

SLOVENIA

Slovenia will most probably start recommending a third vaccine dose, the head of the National advisory committee on immunization, Bojana Beovic, told the Slovenian national broadcaster on Aug. 18.

SWEDEN

The majority of Swedes will be offered a booster shot against COVID in 2022, while high risk groups could get a third shot this autumn, the health authority said on Aug. 3.

SWITZERLAND

Switzerland has ordered 43 million doses of vaccines, including preparations for potential booster shots in 2022, should they be needed, the Health Ministry said.

GULF STATES

The United Arab Emirates will start providing a booster shot to all fully vaccinated people. The shot will be available to people considered at high risk three months after their second vaccine dose, and six months for others.

In June, the UAE and Bahrain made the Pfizer vaccine available as a booster shot to those initially immunised with a vaccine developed by China’s Sinopharm.

THAILAND

Thailand plans to give AstraZeneca or mRNA-type booster shots to an estimated 3.4 million people who were administered the Sinovac brand earlier. Booster doses have already been given to medical and frontline workers who received the Chinese vaccine.

TURKEY

Turkey is allowing people who were inoculated with Sinovac’s vaccine to take an additional Pfizer dose, the health ministry said on Aug. 16.

URUGUAY

Uruguay offers a Pfizer dose for those fully vaccinated with Sinovac’s Coronavac. https://bit.ly/37SFw5P

COMPANIES

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized a third dose of COVID-19 vaccines by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna on Aug. 13 for people with compromised immune systems.

Pfizer and BioNtech have submitted data to the FDA for COVID-19 vaccine booster authorization and plan to submit it as well to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and other regulatory authorities in coming weeks.

Pfizer and Moderna have raised the prices of their COVID-19 vaccines in their latest EU supply contracts, the Financial Times reported on Aug. 1.

Moderna had earlier struck deals with Spain’s Rovi and Switzerland’s Lonza at a Dutch plant that would boost 50-microgram dose production – half the level of its original shots – in Europe to up to 600 million doses annually, with the capacity due to come on line this year.

On Aug. 5, Moderna said its COVID-19 shot was about 93% effective four to six months after the second dose, showing hardly any change from the 94% efficacy reported in its original clinical trial.

It expects, however, a COVID-19 booster to be necessary prior to the winter season.

AstraZeneca said it was looking into how long the vaccine’s protection lasts and if a booster dose would be needed.

 

(Reporting by Matthias Blamont in Paris, Michael Erman in New York, Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago, John Miller in Zurich, Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt, Miyoung Kim in Singapore, Alistair Smout in London, Essi Lehto in Helsinki, Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva, Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem, Dagmarah Mackos, Pawel Goraj, and Veronica Snoj in Gdansk; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise and David Holmes)

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Spy service officer denies threatening Montreal man who was later imprisoned in Sudan

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November 13, 2024

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OTTAWA – A CSIS official denies they threatened a Montreal man who was later imprisoned and allegedly tortured by authorities in Sudan.

The spy service employee, who can only be identified as Witness C to protect their identity, is testifying in Abousfian Abdelrazik’s lawsuit against the federal government.

Abdelrazik claims Canadian officials arranged for his arbitrary imprisonment, encouraged his detention by Sudanese authorities and actively obstructed his repatriation to Canada for several years.

The Sudanese-born Abdelrazik was arrested in September 2003 while in his native country to see his ailing mother.

Witness C, who had previously spoken to Abdelrazik in Montreal, travelled to Khartoum to interrogate him.

In Federal Court today, the witness acknowledged telling Abdelrazik in Canada that he should not travel, but characterized that as sincere advice to protect him rather than a threat.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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Vancouver officer sexually assaulted colleague, but police group chat targeted victim

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November 13, 2024

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VANCOUVER – A disciplinary investigation has found a former Vancouver police sergeant shared “disrespectful” commentary on a fellow officer’s court testimony about being sexually assaulted by a colleague.

The decision against Narinder Dosanjh, obtained by The Canadian Press, includes the running commentary on the woman’s testimony — apparently written by someone inside the courtroom — that calls her a “bad drunk” and says there was “no way” her case would be proved.

Former New Westminster police chief Dave Jansen, the external officer who rendered the decision against Dosanjh, says his assessment accounts for a culture of treating officers who testify against each other as “rats.”

Former Vancouver constable Jagraj Roger Berar was convicted in 2021 and sentenced to a year in jail for assaulting the woman, who can’t be identified because of a publication ban on her name.

Jansen says in his ruling, dated Oct. 11, that the comments in a Vancouver police group chat appear “supportive” of Berar and reflect “all-too-common myths” about women who make sexual assault allegations.

While Jansen found Dosanjh committed discreditable conduct by sharing the chats, a complaint against a more-senior Vancouver officer who was inside the courtroom, and who the victim and other officers believed wrote the commentary, were not substantiated.

The ruling says Jansen, who retired as New Westminster’s chief constable, would accept submissions before deciding how Dosanjh should be punished.

The woman who was assaulted was the complainant in the disciplinary investigation, and said in an interview she felt “vindicated” by Jansen’s decision because it “truly paints what I’ve been through,” after reporting a fellow officer for sexual assault.

She said many other women in municipal policing fear speaking out about ill-treatment at work, and some have told her about being assaulted and harassed but feared ruining their careers if they complained.

“This decision is important for those women to see,” she said. “It shows the tides are changing. Like, this is the first win I’ve had.”

A spokesman for the Surrey Police Service, where Dosanjh now works, did not immediately answer a question about how he was penalized, and said Dosanjh declined an interview request with The Canadian Press.

In his decision, Jansen said there was an “unfortunate but often pervasive” culture of treating officers who complain as “‘rats’, who betrayed their colleagues.”

“In terms of the messages themselves, Sergeant Dosanjh alleges that they are not degrading, humiliating or derogatory and do not attack the personal character of the complainant. I disagree,” Jansen wrote.

The decision includes a screenshot of the commentary about the complainant, who said the order of the messages appeared to refer to her evidence while she was being cross-examined and suggested the comments were written by someone listening to her testimony.

The commentary on a Vancouver police chat group on the Signal messaging app said the victim “wore a wire twice,” and “admitted in cross to possibly drinking way more alcohol than she originally claimed.”

“Her memory is super hazy and there’s no way you can prove beyond reasonable doubt,” the person wrote.

“And she admitted that she is really bad drunk,” they added.

Another message said it was a “nail in the coffin” of the case that video showed the complainant “cuddling, holding hands” with Berar.

The victim, who became aware of the commentary when a friend in the department showed them to her, was distressed by the messages and disputed their accuracy, said Jansen.

“The comments also appear to reflect some of the all-too-common myths around women making allegations of sexual assault. Some of these myths include the belief that because a victim socialized with the perpetrator, or engaged in some consensual activity with him, therefore she must have consented to the assault,” he wrote.

Jansen’s decision said Dosanjh shared the messages with a fellow officer after getting them from a “VPD chat group that he claims he knew little about, from a co-worker he claims not to be able to identify.”

The decision said other officers believed the commentary was written bya more-senior officer in the department who had been present at the trial, but Jansen said the discreditable conduct complaint against that person was unsubstantiated.

The decision said Dosanjh claimed he was the “fall guy” and “a pawn in a broader game.”

Jansen’s decision said Dosanjh was a senior officer and supervisor who was aware of the “vulnerability of victims of sexual crimes and of the myths that surround sexual assault victims.”

It said Dosanjh’s “distribution of these messages that were disrespectful of an alleged victim of sexual violence who was also a co-worker, should they become public, would likely discredit the reputation of the police force.”

The Vancouver Police Department did not immediately provide comment on Jansen’s decision.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.



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Beetles from B.C. settling in Nova Scotia, taking up the fight to rescue hemlocks

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November 13, 2024

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FREDERICTON – The offspring of beetles imported from British Columbia are ready to take up the fight against an invasive insect that is killing hemlock trees in Nova Scotia.

Last fall and spring, about 5,000 Laricobius nigrinus beetles — affectionately called Lari by scientists — made an overnight journey from the West Coast.

Lucas Roscoe, research scientist with the Canadian Forest Service, says in the fight against the woolly adelgid that is destroying swaths of hemlock trees in Nova Scotia, the first step was to make sure the Lari beetle can survive a Nova Scotia winter.

The one-to-two-millimetre black flying beetles were released across six sites in Nova Scotia that had the woolly adelgids.

In one of the sites, scientists placed cages of imported beetles and about 60 per cent of them were able to survive the winter in Nova Scotia, which Roscoe says is an encouraging rate.

He says the woolly adelgid was first seen in southwestern Nova Scotia in 2017 and the peppercorn-sized insect, aided by climate change, has since spread north.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 13, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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