Kids across Canada have started to receive their first shots of COVID-19 vaccine, and experts say this could be a big help in Canada’s pandemic fight.
“The difference is going to be huge. The impact is going to be huge,” said Colin Furness, an infection control epidemiologist at the University of Toronto.
Health Canada approved Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for children aged five to 11 on Nov. 19, and the first pediatric doses arrived in Canada days later. Some provinces have already begun administering shots.
Children in this age group account for around eight per cent of the Canadian population, according to demographic data from Statistics Canada, though it varies province to province.
Currently, about 78 per cent of all Canadians have at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine. Assuming that young children get vaccinated at the same rate as their peers aged 12-17 – 87 per cent of whom have at least one dose – vaccinating this age group would bring Canada’s overall vaccine rate to nearly 85 per cent.
“It’s a huge dent in the total number of people who don’t have protection,” said Caroline Colijn, a professor of mathematics and Canada 150 Research Chair at Simon Fraser University, who works with the B.C. COVID-19 Modelling Group.
Predicting exactly what impact that extra few percentage points of vaccine coverage will have is complicated, Colijn said. Epidemiologists have to take into account current caseloads, understand how children interact and how they transmit the disease to others, which has changed significantly over the course of the pandemic, she noted.
With the data they have, Colijn said, in B.C. it would steepen the current slight decline in cases. In other provinces, she thinks vaccinating children would cause a decline in case numbers or at least have them level off.
“Based on the modelling that we have, it will likely cause a decline in transmission,” she said.
2:39 COVID-19 vaccine for kids 5-11 brings ‘hope’ and ‘optimism,’ Manitoba health official says
COVID-19 vaccine for kids 5-11 brings ‘hope’ and ‘optimism,’ Manitoba health official says
Blocking transmission chains
Vaccinating kids doesn’t just protect them from potentially serious illness as a result of COVID-19, like multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) and other complications, according to Colijn. It also helps stop them from transmitting the disease to others.
“We would see a substantial indirect effect that has knock-on benefits for older adults, for hospitalizations, for ICU, because all of that is driven ultimately by cases now,” she said.
“And if we get those infections down, then those are older individuals who maybe never got exposed, who might have been in some transmission chain that we block by vaccinating kids.”
Many infections in children are asymptomatic, Furness noted, and are only found by testing classrooms. But, he said, infected kids who don’t have symptoms can still pass on the virus to their friends and family.
“One infected family can infect an entire neighbourhood based on the mixing that happens in schools,” he said.
This is why Furness believes that vaccinating school-aged children could make such a big difference in Canada.
“Primary school kids and primary schools are the last big biome for COVID,” he said.
Children under 19 accounted for more than one-third of new cases reported during the second week of November, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.
3:38 Kids and COVID-19
Kids and COVID-19
“Schools are this great nexus or this great gathering that’s very difficult to manage, very difficult to control and act as a superhighway for infection transmission,” Furness said.
While he doesn’t expect to see too much of an effect from vaccinating children until around February, he thinks that if the campaign starts strong now, it’s possible Canada could avoid rising case numbers like Europe is currently experiencing.
“If you look at what’s happening in Europe right now, that’s our future,” he said. “If we don’t do vaccination, that’s our future.”
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
