The recommendations come after the WHO made a plea for countries to halt progress on boosters as the Delta variant continues its dominance worldwide; many countries are still trying to ramp up their own vaccination campaigns.
“Since this pandemic has begun, the lack of global coordination, leadership and direction has been appalling,” said Kerry Bowman, a bioethicist at the University of Toronto.
“No one has their eye on the big picture. We’re increasingly tucked away, trying to figure out what’s best for us and losing the plot,” he said, adding, “the plot being the way to deal with this incredible pandemic is to deal with it globally. And again, focusing on boosters is moving us away from that goal.”
1:53 Canada’s top doctor says discussion on COVID-19 booster shots still ‘evolving’
Canada’s top doctor says discussion on COVID-19 booster shots still ‘evolving’
On Wednesday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he wants a moratorium on boosters until at least the end of September so that every country can vaccinate at least 10 per cent of their population.
“I understand the concern of all governments to protect their people from the Delta variant. But we cannot accept countries that have already used most of the global supply of vaccines using even more of it,” he said.
1:38 WHO calls for global pause on COVID-19 vaccine boosters
WHO calls for global pause on COVID-19 vaccine boosters
Canada, facing the start of a fourth wave driven by the Delta variant, has procured enough vaccines to inoculate every eligible Canadian. The country has one of the world’s best vaccination rates, which currently sits at 68 per cent fully vaccinated and 81 per cent partially vaccinated.
Yet the world’s rate for fully vaccinated people is 15.08 per cent, Johns Hopkins University reports.
“Canada has so many more vaccines at this point than we need, and the global situation ethically and epidemiologically needs immediate attention,” Bowman said.
Dr. Theresa Tam, chief public health officer of Canada, told reporters on Thursday that Canada still needs more data on boosters before making a decision. She said experts are monitoring high-risk populations, like the immunocompromised and elderly, for a potential boost.
Tam believes though that if, or when, the time does come for Canada to offer a third shot, the country could still continue to share doses with the world.
The government announced Wednesday that it will send 82,000 doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine to Trinidad and Tobago. It also announced last month that it’s donating 17.7 million AstraZeneca shots to the global COVAX vaccine sharing program.
“Without the rest of the world being vaccinated, it’s very difficult for us to get out of the pandemic. Also, it would have impacts, potentially, on our precautionary but phased border reopening,” she said.
“Canada’s has, in its range of acting options, a lot of capacity. So I think we can definitely do both.”
Dr. Barry Pakes, a professor with the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, believes Canada should have conversations around boosters — but not implement a program right away.
“From an ethical perspective, we shouldn’t be doing that, (and) we should be sharing vaccine with the rest of the world right now if possible. … But we should be thinking about it,” he said.
“I think it’s reasonable to think about it in the future, meaning we should be giving vaccines to countries that need it now with some kind of reciprocal agreement to potentially get those back if we in fact need them.”
In light of the WHO’s request, Germany and France said they will go ahead with boosters for vulnerable populations in September. The United States indicated on Wednesday that it would offer booster shots if needed, but provided no firm plan or timeline.
The first country to administer vaccine top-ups is Israel, which is boosting fully vaccinated people over the age of 60 with Pfizer-BioNTech. Israel decided to offer the booster due to Delta’s spread in the country.
Pakes feels that Israel, because it’s a smaller country, has an ethical obligation to boost its over-60 population and share the data with the world to “better inform, not only the decision-making of other countries, but the ethical framing altogether of the global pandemic response in respect to vaccines.”
Israel has “a much better health system and data system than we do, so the things learned there are just critically important for global health decision making around the pandemic,” he said.
1:09 Israeli health official says COVID-19 booster shot helps with waning immunity
Israeli health official says COVID-19 booster shot helps with waning immunity
Neither the European Union nor the United States has approved boosters, but pharmaceutical companies are studying them.
Moderna said on Thursday it believes booster shots will be needed by the winter and claims its three vaccine candidates “induced robust antibody responses” against variants like Gamma, Beta and Delta.
Last week, Pfizer released a trial update that claimed its third dose generated virus-neutralizing antibodies against the Delta variant more than five times higher in younger people and more than 11 times higher in older people than from two doses.
COVID-19 vaccines still provide strong protection against the variant, but countries like the United States have had to reintroduce policies for further protection against Delta. The CDC recently cited Delta’s surge for its updated advice that fully vaccinated people return to wearing masks indoors in areas with high transmission.
While U.S. officials say most of the cases are among the unvaccinated, recent studies show the virus has infected those who are fully vaccinated — described as breakthrough cases. A recent CDC report suggested Delta could be as contagious as chickenpox.
4:08 Impact of the Delta variant
Impact of the Delta variant
For Bowman, Canada needs to think about the decisions it makes.
“Look, this story is not over yet and we need to live with this moral legacy as well of the decisions we make and the decisions we make as a nation will define who we are,” he said.
“This is a very critical point we’re at — I think it’s important we get this right ethically as well as scientifically.”
Netflix on Thursday reported that its subscriber growth slowed dramatically during the summer, a sign the huge gains from the video-streaming service’s crackdown on freeloading viewers is tapering off.
The 5.1 million subscribers that Netflix added during the July-September period represented a 42% decline from the total gained during the same time last year. Even so, the company’s revenue and profit rose at a faster pace than analysts had projected, according to FactSet Research.
Netflix ended September with 282.7 million worldwide subscribers — far more than any other streaming service.
The Los Gatos, California, company earned $2.36 billion, or $5.40 per share, a 41% increase from the same time last year. Revenue climbed 15% from a year ago to $9.82 billion. Netflix management predicted the company’s revenue will rise at the same 15% year-over-year pace during the October-December period, slightly than better than analysts have been expecting.
The strong financial performance in the past quarter coupled with the upbeat forecast eclipsed any worries about slowing subscriber growth. Netflix’s stock price surged nearly 4% in extended trading after the numbers came out, building upon a more than 40% increase in the company’s shares so far this year.
The past quarter’s subscriber gains were the lowest posted in any three-month period since the beginning of last year. That drop-off indicates Netflix is shifting to a new phase after reaping the benefits from a ban on the once-rampant practice of sharing account passwords that enabled an estimated 100 million people watch its popular service without paying for it.
The crackdown, triggered by a rare loss of subscribers coming out of the pandemic in 2022, helped Netflix add 57 million subscribers from June 2022 through this June — an average of more than 7 million per quarter, while many of its industry rivals have been struggling as households curbed their discretionary spending.
Netflix’s gains also were propelled by a low-priced version of its service that included commercials for the first time in its history. The company still is only getting a small fraction of its revenue from the 2-year-old advertising push, but Netflix is intensifying its focus on that segment of its business to help boost its profits.
In a letter to shareholder, Netflix reiterated previous cautionary notes about its expansion into advertising, though the low-priced option including commercials has become its fastest growing segment.
“We have much more work to do improving our offering for advertisers, which will be a priority over the next few years,” Netflix management wrote in the letter.
As part of its evolution, Netflix has been increasingly supplementing its lineup of scripted TV series and movies with live programming, such as a Labor Day spectacle featuring renowned glutton Joey Chestnut setting a world record for gorging on hot dogs in a showdown with his longtime nemesis Takeru Kobayashi.
Netflix will be trying to attract more viewer during the current quarter with a Nov. 15 fight pitting former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson against Jake Paul, a YouTube sensation turned boxer, and two National Football League games on Christmas Day.
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