Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, who is delaying second doses of COVID-19 vaccine to 16 weeks from six to free up vaccine and give every British Columbian a first jab by July, said she is confident in the face of criticism.
Dr. Mona Nemer, Canada’s chief science adviser, has compared B.C.’s delay of second doses with a “population level experiment,” saying that while it’s plausible to do it, we should not tinker with the data provided by Pfizer and Moderna to leave three to four weeks between first and second doses.
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Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease official in the U.S., said that country will stick to its two-dose regimen, resisting calls to use a single dose to give more people immediate protection, the Washington Post reported.
Henry is standing behind her decision. Studies show that the first dose of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine is upwards of 90 per cent effective after three weeks and it lasts for several months, preventing serious illness, hospitalizations and deaths, Henry said on Tuesday.
The National Advisory Committee on Immunization has reviewed the data in detail and its statement is “imminent,” she said. “That is why I am so confident that the decision we made over this past weekend to extend that interval is the best one, based on all of the scientific and the data that we have to maximize the benefit to everybody in our community, so that we can both stop people from getting seriously ill, prevent people from needing hospitalization, and prevent people from dying.”
The freeing up of doses to vaccinate more people quickly will allow the province to ease pandemic restrictions much sooner, she said.
The province will be able to increase visits to long-term care facilities “and have families be together with their loved one in care homes before the end of this month,” she said. “We now know from the real-world data that we don’t need to rely on second doses before we can lift some of these restrictions, if we have enough people protected, and we can stop that transmission in our communities.”
Come June or July when everyone in B.C. is protected with a first dose of vaccine, “we will know more about when is the optimal timing for booster dose,” said Henry.
Fauci did not recommend the delaying of doses in the U.S. because he felt they had sufficient vaccine “which is fine,” Henry said. The United Kingdom is also delaying the second dose, and Fauci went on to say “each of those approaches is correct and is right,” she said.
Henry said that Nemer, the chief science adviser, “who obviously was not involved in some of these discussions and decision making … perhaps didn’t understand the context that this decision was made in.”
Infectious diseases specialist Dr. Isaac Bogoch in Toronto said that in December and even January there was hesitancy over delaying the second dose, “but there’s been a growing global experience delaying the second dose and there’s also accruing evidence suggesting that delaying that second dose is a reasonable thing to do.”
If one were to line up 100 scientists, epidemiologists, public health providers and infectious diseases physicians there probably wouldn’t be an argument over delaying the second dose. “I think the argument you’d get is how long can you delay that second,” Bogoch said.
Canada’s chief science adviser has valid concerns, but there’s growing evidence suggesting it’s OK to delay, he said.
“It’s going be just like everything else we have seen in the pandemic,” Bogoch said. “You can have multiple people look at the exact same data and come to different conclusions. And that’s OK, as long as we’re open and honest and transparent about how we’re making our decisions, and we understand what the benefits are and what the potential risks are.”
B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix said 283,182 doses of COVID vaccine have been administered — 186,654 people have received first doses, 86,537 have received second doses. That includes 95 per cent of long-term care and assisted living residents who have received their first doses of COVID-19 vaccine.
Everyone needs to focus on maintaining all levels of protection including physical distancing, wearing masks, and not gathering outside one’s household, and getting tested if symptomatic, Henry said.
On Tuesday, the province reported 438 new cases of COVID-19, including 19 new cases in Island Health. Of 4,679 active cases, there are 243 people in hospital, including 63 in intensive or critical care. Another 8,445 people who are contacts of an infected person are under public health monitoring.
Two more deaths have been reported, for a total of 1,365 COVID-related deaths since the pandemic began.
Twenty-two new variants of concern have been detected — 159 of the U.K. variant and 23 of the South African variant — of which eight are still active.
The province made a data correction on Tuesday, announcing another 254 cases of COVID-19 over the past week that went unreported.
MONTREAL – Travel company Transat AT Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter compared with a profit a year earlier as its revenue edged lower.
The parent company of Air Transat says it lost $39.9 million or $1.03 per diluted share in its quarter ended July 31.
The result compared with a profit of $57.3 million or $1.49 per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue in what was the company’s third quarter totalled $736.2 million, down from $746.3 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Transat says it lost $1.10 per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $1.10 per share a year earlier.
Transat chief executive Annick Guérard says demand for leisure travel remains healthy, as evidenced by higher traffic, but consumers are increasingly price conscious given the current economic uncertainty.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Dollarama Inc.’s food aisles may have expanded far beyond sweet treats or piles of gum by the checkout counter in recent years, but its chief executive maintains his company is “not in the grocery business,” even if it’s keeping an eye on the sector.
“It’s just one small part of our store,” Neil Rossy told analysts on a Wednesday call, where he was questioned about the company’s food merchandise and rivals playing in the same space.
“We will keep an eye on all retailers — like all retailers keep an eye on us — to make sure that we’re competitive and we understand what’s out there.”
Over the last decade and as consumers have more recently sought deals, Dollarama’s food merchandise has expanded to include bread and pantry staples like cereal, rice and pasta sold at prices on par or below supermarkets.
However, the competition in the discount segment of the market Dollarama operates in intensified recently when the country’s biggest grocery chain began piloting a new ultra-discount store.
The No Name stores being tested by Loblaw Cos. Ltd. in Windsor, St. Catharines and Brockville, Ont., are billed as 20 per cent cheaper than discount retail competitors including No Frills. The grocery giant is able to offer such cost savings by relying on a smaller store footprint, fewer chilled products and a hearty range of No Name merchandise.
Though Rossy brushed off notions that his company is a supermarket challenger, grocers aren’t off his radar.
“All retailers in Canada are realistic about the fact that everyone is everyone’s competition on any given item or category,” he said.
Rossy declined to reveal how much of the chain’s sales would overlap with Loblaw or the food category, arguing the vast variety of items Dollarama sells is its strength rather than its grocery products alone.
“What makes Dollarama Dollarama is a very wide assortment of different departments that somewhat represent the old five-and-dime local convenience store,” he said.
The breadth of Dollarama’s offerings helped carry the company to a second-quarter profit of $285.9 million, up from $245.8 million in the same quarter last year as its sales rose 7.4 per cent.
The retailer said Wednesday the profit amounted to $1.02 per diluted share for the 13-week period ended July 28, up from 86 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
The period the quarter covers includes the start of summer, when Rossy said the weather was “terrible.”
“The weather got slightly better towards the end of the summer and our sales certainly increased, but not enough to make up for the season’s horrible start,” he said.
Sales totalled $1.56 billion for the quarter, up from $1.46 billion in the same quarter last year.
Comparable store sales, a key metric for retailers, increased 4.7 per cent, while the average transaction was down2.2 per cent and traffic was up seven per cent, RBC analyst Irene Nattel pointed out.
She told investors in a note that the numbers reflect “solid demand as cautious consumers focus on core consumables and everyday essentials.”
Analysts have attributed such behaviour to interest rates that have been slow to drop and high prices of key consumer goods, which are weighing on household budgets.
To cope, many Canadians have spent more time seeking deals, trading down to more affordable brands and forgoing small luxuries they would treat themselves to in better economic times.
“When people feel squeezed, they tend to shy away from discretionary, focus on the basics,” Rossy said. “When people are feeling good about their wallet, they tend to be more lax about the basics and more willing to spend on discretionary.”
The current economic situation has drawn in not just the average Canadian looking to save a buck or two, but also wealthier consumers.
“When the entire economy is feeling slightly squeezed, we get more consumers who might not have to or want to shop at a Dollarama generally or who enjoy shopping at a Dollarama but have the luxury of not having to worry about the price in some other store that they happen to be standing in that has those goods,” Rossy said.
“Well, when times are tougher, they’ll consider the extra five minutes to go to the store next door.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
TORONTO – The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has ordered TD Bank Group to pay US$28 million for repeatedly sharing inaccurate, negative information about its customers to consumer reporting companies.
The agency says TD has to pay US$7.76 million in total to tens of thousands of victims of its illegal actions, along with a US$20 million civil penalty.
It says TD shared information that contained systemic errors about credit card and bank deposit accounts to consumer reporting companies, which can include credit reports as well as screening reports for tenants and employees and other background checks.
CFPB director Rohit Chopra says in a statement that TD threatened the consumer reports of customers with fraudulent information then “barely lifted a finger to fix it,” and that regulators will need to “focus major attention” on TD Bank to change its course.
TD says in a statement it self-identified these issues and proactively worked to improve its practices, and that it is committed to delivering on its responsibilities to its customers.
The bank also faces scrutiny in the U.S. over its anti-money laundering program where it expects to pay more than US$3 billion in monetary penalties to resolve.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
