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Six-month COVID-19 vaccine delay in Canada would have cost $156B: study

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A study from the C.D. Howe Institute estimates Canada would have lost $156 billion in economic activity in 2021 had COVID-19 vaccines been rolled out six months later than they were.

That would have been equivalent to about 12.5 per cent of Canada’s gross domestic product.

“The results show that vaccination was highly beneficial to population health and also cost-effective from an economic perspective,” the think tank said in a report released Thursday.

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Rosalie Wyonch, a senior policy analyst and author of the report, said vaccines were effective at reducing the number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths. There were also much larger benefits on the broader economy, she added.

Vaccine procurement and administration costs were about $3.7 billion. The report said the direct savings associated with averting COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations were an estimated $3.3 billion to $5.8 billion.

The institute put a $27.6-billion value on deaths that were prevented, dwarfing the cost of vaccines.

Widespread vaccination also prevented about 54,500 cases of long COVID among Canada’s workforce. That would have represented about $331 million in lost wages in 2021, it said.

“It was a successful program and from an economic perspective, we are benefiting from reduced transmission and viral load of COVID,” Wyonch said.

The institute used two models to analyze the direct net costs and benefits of the vaccination program. Wyonch said they were limited by the availability of data.

The arrival of vaccines and widespread distribution of doses in 2021 created a path for the removal of public health restrictions and a return to regular economic activities. The study doesn’t include those indirect effects in its analysis of the economy, but said they would have been significant.

The Public Health Agency of Canada and the federal government signed deals with seven companies that were developing vaccines in 2020 and 2021. So far, six of those have been authorized by Health Canada.

Wyonch said there was a calculated risk in making procurement decisions before knowing what would be effective. But, she said, it would allow for quicker deployment.

Time is a critical factor in an ongoing crisis and Wyonch said the speed of development and distribution was a significant achievement.

“I think there are really some good lessons to be learned in terms of our regulatory processes and getting innovative medical products to Canadians quickly,” she said.

A report from Canada’s auditor general earlier this month had mixed reviews of the vaccine rollout.

It found tens of millions of doses are likely to expire and go to waste because of a failure to manage oversupply. That was expected to have a price tag of $1 billion, the auditor general’s report said.

Canadians went out in droves to get the first two COVID-19 vaccine doses, but demand waned for booster shots. That contributed to oversupply, Wyonch said.

“There are lessons to be learned in terms of not wasting doses,” Wyonch said.

The C.D. Howe report said it is crucial to improve overall COVID-19 booster and influenza vaccine uptake.

“As COVID-19 becomes endemic, the normalization of boosters and continued uptake, especially among older populations, will be necessary,” it said.

“The success of the COVID-19 vaccination campaigns provides insights for other vaccination efforts, particularly for the working-age population.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 15, 2022.

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RCMP warn about benzodiazepine-laced fentanyl tied to overdose in Alberta – Edmonton Journal

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Grande Prairie RCMP issued a warning Friday after it was revealed fentanyl linked to a deadly overdose was mixed with a chemical that doesn’t respond to naloxone treatment.

The drugs were initially seized on Feb. 28 after a fatal overdose, and this week, Health Canada reported back to Mounties that the fentanyl had been mixed with Bromazolam, which is a benzodiazepine.

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Mounties say this is the first recorded instance of Bromazolam in Alberta. The drug has previously been linked to nine fatal overdoses in New Brunswick in 2022.

The pills seized in Alberta were oval-shaped and stamped with “20” and “SS,” though Mounties say it can come in other forms.

Naloxone treatment, given in many cases of opioid toxicity, is not effective in reversing the effects of Bromazalam, Mounties said, and therefore, any fentanyl mixed with the benzodiazepine “would see a reduced effectiveness of naloxone, requiring the use of additional doses and may still result in a fatality.”

Photo of benzodiazepine-laced fentanyl seized earlier this year by Grande Prairie RCMP after a fatal overdose. edm

From January to November of last year, there were 1,706 opioid-related deaths in Alberta, and 57 linked to benzodiazepine, up from 1,375 and 43, respectively, in 2022.

Mounties say officers responded to about 1,100 opioid-related calls for service, last year with a third of those proving fatal. RCMP officers also used naloxone 67 times while in the field, a jump of nearly a third over the previous year.

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CFIA continues surveillance for HPAI in cattle, while sticking with original name for disease – RealAgriculture

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The Canada Food Inspection Agency will continue to refer to highly pathogenic avian influenza in cattle as HPAI in cattle, and not refer to it as bovine influenza A virus (BIAV), as suggested by the American Association of Bovine Practitioners earlier this month.

Dr. Martin Appelt, senior director for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, in the interview below, says at this time Canada will stick with “HPAI in cattle” when referencing the disease that’s been confirmed in dairy cattle in multiple states in the U.S.

The CFIA’s naming policy is consistent with the agency’s U.S. counterparts’, as the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has also said it will continue referring to it as HPAI or H5N1.

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Appelt explains how the CFIA is learning from the U.S. experience to-date, and how it is working with veterinarians across Canada to stay vigilant for signs of the disease in dairy and beef cattle.

As of April 19, there has not been a confirmed case of HPAI in cattle in Canada. Appelt says it’s too soon to say if an eventual positive case will significantly restrict animal movement, as is the case with positive poultry cases.

This is a major concern for the cattle industry, as beef cattle especially move north and south across the U.S. border by the thousands. Appelt says that CFIA will address an infection in each species differently in conjunction with how the disease is spread and the threat to neighbouring farms or livestock.

Currently, provincial dairy organizations have advised producers to postpone any non-essential tours of dairy barns, as a precaution, in addition to other biosecurity measures to reduce the risk of cattle contracting HPAI.

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Toronto reports 2 more measles cases. Use our tool to check the spread in Canada – Toronto Star

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Canada has seen a concerning rise in measles cases in the first months of 2024.

By the third week of March, the country had already recorded more than three times the number of cases as all of last year. Canada had just 12 cases of measles in 2023, up from three in 2022.

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