Different vaccines to protect against the novel coronavirus shouldn’t be mixed-and-matched, despite Britain’s recent decision to allow the practice to be used in rare occasions, health experts say.
Mixing different coronavirus vaccines without any data to suggest the safety and efficacy of the practice is “a huge gamble,” Dr. Colin Furness, an infection control epidemiologist and assistant professor at the University of Toronto said.
“I think it’s irresponsible … it’s unethical because we don’t know what that does,” he said. “We don’t know what the effectiveness is, we don’t know what the side effects are.”
Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious diseases faculty member at the University of Toronto said while there may be “some theoretical reasons” as to why vaccine mixing “may provide decent protection to COVID-19 infections,” the data is not yet conclusive.
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“Until we see better data to support that, I don’t think we’re going to see any such activity in Canada,” he said.
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The comments come after Britain released new guidelines on New Year’s Eve which will allow people seeking their second dose to be given shots of different COVID-19 vaccines on rare occasions.
“(If) the same vaccine is not available, or if the first product received is unknown, it is reasonable to offer one dose of the locally available product to complete the schedule,” according to the guidelines.
Mary Ramsay, head of immunizations at Public Health England, said this would only happen on extremely rare occasions, and that the government was not recommending the mixing of vaccines, which require at least two doses given several weeks apart.
She said “every effort should be made to give them the same vaccine.
“But where this is not possible it is better to give a second dose of another vaccine than not at all,” she said.
What has Health Canada said?
Health Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) currently recommends that the vaccine series “be completed with the same COVID-19 vaccine product.”
“Currently, no data exists on the interchangeability of COVID-19 vaccines,” the agency’s website read.
However, according to NACI, if the vaccine used for a previous dose is “not known, or not available, attempts should be made to complete the vaccine in series with a similar type of COVID-19 vaccine (e.g. mRNA vaccine).”
“In the context of limited COVID-19 vaccine supply and the absence of evidence on interchangeability of COVID-19 vaccines, the previous dose may be counted, and the series need not be restarted,” the website read.
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The agency said “active surveillance of effectiveness and safety of this mixed schedule will be important in these individuals,” adding that “accurate recording of vaccines received will be critical.”
According to the NACI, the agency will “continue to monitor the evidence” and will update its recommendations as needed.
To date, Health Canada has approved two coronavirus vaccines for use across the country. Both are mRNA vaccines, and require two doses to provide around 95 per cent protection from COVID-19.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine requires two shots to be administered 21 days apart, while doses of the Moderna vaccine are to be administered 28 days apart.
Bogoch said we have “good data” on these vaccines, and how they are to be administered.
Asked if there are any circumstances in which Canada should allow different vaccines to be mixed-and-matched before data is available, Bogoch said: “no.”
“I’m not entirely sure outside of a clinical trial what the role would be for conducting this type of activity,” he said.
Furness also said vaccines should not be mixed unless in a lab setting, where participants have given their informed consent.
“If you want to do a trial to try them out, sure,” he said. “But that’s going to take many months.”
Anything else, Furness said, would be “experimental.”
“The human history is really littered with experimenting on people without the understanding that they’re being experimented on,” he said. “And that’s really not OK.”
For now, Bogoch said we should focus on rolling out the approved vaccines as quickly as possible, in the manner in which they are meant to be administered.
“The goal is to have as few vaccines in freezers as possible and get the needles in arms quickly as possible to the highest risk groups and prevent death and suffering,” he said.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
