Health
Vaccine panel recommends going up to 4 months between doses of COVID-19 shots – ElliotLakeToday.com
A national panel of vaccine experts recommended Wednesday that provinces extend the interval between the two doses of a COVID-19 shot to quickly inoculate more people, as the prime minister expressed optimism that vaccination timelines could be sped up.
In laying out its new guidelines, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization said extending the dose interval to four months would create opportunities to protect the entire adult population against the virus within a short time frame.
As many as 80 per cent of Canadians over 16 could receive a single dose by the end of June simply with the expected supply of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, the panel said. Second doses would begin to be administered in July as more shipments arrive, the panel said, noting that 55 million doses are expected to be delivered in the third quarter of the year.
In comparison, the federal government previously said 38 per cent of people would receive two doses by the end of June.
The addition of the newly approved Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine to the country’s supply could mean almost all Canadians would get their first shot in that time frame, but Ottawa has not yet said how many doses of that vaccine will be delivered in the spring and how many in the summer.
“The vaccine effectiveness of the first dose will be monitored closely and the decision to delay the second dose will be continuously assessed based on surveillance and effectiveness data and post-implementation study designs,” the panel wrote.
“Effectiveness against variants of concern will also be monitored closely, and recommendations may need to be revised,” it said, adding there is currently no evidence that a longer interval will affect the emergence of the variants.
The updated guidance applies to all COVID-19 vaccines currently approved for use in Canada.
The committee’s recommendation came hours after Newfoundland and Labrador said it will extend the interval between the first and second doses to four months, and days after health officials in British Columbia announced they were doing so.
Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec also said Wednesday they will delay second doses. Ontario previously said it was weighing a similar move but would seek advice from the federal government.
Earlier Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said any change in public health guidance regarding the timing of the two doses could affect the speed of Canada’s vaccine rollout, as could the approval of more shots.
The federal government’s plan to have doses administered to all Canadians who want one by the end of September didn’t factor in the arrival of new vaccines such as the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot, Trudeau said.
And despite delays in the delivery of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine last month, Canada is now “fully back on track and even ahead of schedule” when it comes to its supply of the various shots, he said, noting the country should receive more than the six million doses of COVID-19 vaccines it initially expected to get by the end of March.
“The projections we’ve had for many, many months certainly hold, but we’re also very optimistic that they’re going to be able to be moved forward if, indeed, all the vaccines that we’ve contracted for are able to be manufactured and shipped in the right ways,” the prime minister said.
The first 500,000 doses of the recently approved Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine arrived in Canada on Wednesday, though confusion persists over who should get them.
The vaccine, manufactured at the Serum Institute of India, is the third COVID-19 shot approved for use in Canada.
Health Canada last week authorized its use for all adult Canadians but the National Advisory Committee on Immunization recommended Tuesday that it not be administered to people 65 years of age or older.
The committee said there is limited data from clinical trials about how effective the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is for seniors and recommends that they be given priority for the two other vaccines — Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna — already greenlighted for use in Canada.
Both Health Canada and the committee stress no safety concerns have arisen in the clinical studies or among the millions of seniors who have received the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in other countries.
Some provinces, including Alberta, British Columbia and Prince Edward Island, plan to follow the advisory committee’s advice and target the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine at younger people working in front-line essential services or in high-risk settings like prisons.
On Wednesday, the Ontario government said it will give the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot to residents aged 60 to 64. The drug will not be doled out through mass immunization clinics but rather through a “different pathway,” Solicitor General Sylvia Jones said. Details of the program were not released.
Manitoba said it plans to target those between the ages of 50 and 64 who have high-risk underlying conditions. The province said it expects to receive its first shipment of the AstraZeneca shot by mid-month.
Other provinces, including Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, are still mulling over the issue.
Meanwhile, Quebec said it would move more regions into the less restrictive orange level of its pandemic system starting next Monday. But while residents in Quebec City, Chaudiere-Appalaches, Mauricie, Estrie and Centre-du-Quebec will see measures loosen, those in the Montreal area will remain under the more stringent rules of the province’s red level.
New guidelines for shipping and storing the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were also released Wednesday, with Health Canada saying the drug can be transported and kept at standard freezer temperatures for up to two weeks.
The previous storage instructions required that the vaccine be kept in ultralow temperatures and thawed just before use, which restricted its distribution to areas equipped with the necessary specialty freezers. The change should allow for wider distribution of the vaccines.
Ottawa also confirmed Wednesday it is extending three federal support programs meant to lessen the economic impact of COVID-19 on residents and business owners until June.
The federal wage subsidy, rent support and lockdown programs will carry on with the same level of aid, the government said.
In addition to Wednesday’s shipment of Oxford-AstraZeneca doses, Canada is also scheduled to receive 444,600 doses of the Pfizer vaccine this week.
With Oxford-AstraZeneca added to Canada’s vaccine arsenal, the country is on track to receive a total of 6.5 million vaccine doses by the end of this month — half a million more than originally expected.
— With files from Mia Rabson in Ottawa
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 3, 2021.
Paola Loriggio, The Canadian Press
Health
It's possible to rely on plant proteins without sacrificing training gains, new studies say – The Globe and Mail
At the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, a scientist named Paul Schenk surveyed the eating habits of top athletes from around the world. The Canadians reported plowing through more than 800 grams of meat per day on average; the Americans were downing more than two litres of milk daily.
While there have been plenty of changes in sports nutrition since then, the belief that meat and dairy are the best fuel for building muscle persists. These days, though, a growing number of athletes are interested in reducing or eliminating their reliance on animal proteins, for environmental, ethical or health reasons. A pair of new studies bolsters the case that it’s possible to rely on plant proteins without sacrificing training gains, as long as you pick your proteins carefully.
The standard objection to plant proteins is that they don’t have the right mix of essential amino acids needed to assemble new muscle fibres. Unlike animal proteins, most plant proteins are missing or low in at least one essential amino acid.
In particular, there’s one specific amino acid, leucine, that seems to play a special role in triggering the synthesis of new muscle. It’s particularly abundant in whey, one of the two proteins (along with casein) found in milk. That’s why whey protein is the powdered beverage of choice in gyms around the world, backed by decades of convincing research, which was often funded by the dairy industry.
But one of the reasons whey looks so good may be that we haven’t fully explored the alternatives. A 2018 study by Luc van Loon of the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands, for example, tested nine vegetable proteins including wheat, hemp, soy, brown rice, pea and corn. To their surprise, they found that corn protein contains 13.5 per cent leucine – even more than whey.
Based on that insight, van Loon decided to pit corn against milk in a direct test of muscle protein synthesis. Volunteers consumed 30 grams of one of the proteins; a series of blood tests and muscle biopsies were collected over the next five hours to determine how much of the ingested protein was being turned into new muscle fibres. The results, which appeared in the journal Amino Acids, were straightforward: Despite all the hype about whey, there was no discernible difference between them.
A second study, this one published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise by a team led by Benjamin Wall of the University of Exeter in Britain, had similar findings. Instead of corn, it used a mix of 40 per cent pea, 40 per cent brown rice and 20 per cent canola proteins. Since different plants have different amino acids profiles, mixing complementary proteins has long been suggested as a way overcoming the deficiencies of any single plant protein. Sure enough, the protein blend triggered just as much new muscle synthesis as whey.
On the surface, the message from these studies is straightforward: Plant proteins are – or at least can be – as effective as even the best animal proteins for supporting muscle growth. There are a few caveats to consider, though. One is that the studies used isolated protein powders rather than whole foods. You would need nearly nine cobs of corn to get the 30 grams of protein used in van Loon’s study, compared to just three-and-a-half cups of milk.
Another is that plants are generally harder to digest, meaning that not all the amino acids will be usable. That may not be a problem for healthy young adults consuming 30 grams of protein at once, which is enough to trigger a near-maximal muscle response. But for older people, who tend to have blunted muscle-building responses to protein, or in situations where you’re getting a smaller dose of protein, the details of protein quality may become more important.
Of course, the effectiveness of plant proteins won’t be news to notable plant-based athletes such as ultrarunner Scott Jurek or basketball star Chris Paul – but it’s encouraging to see the science finally begin to catch up.
Alex Hutchinson is the author of Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance. Follow him on Threads @sweat_science.
CLOVER, S.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Poultry farmers across the Carolinas aren’t taking any chances. Many are turning to strict protocols as another wave of bird flu continues to threaten the chicken population across the country.
Since 2022, it is estimated more than 90 million birds have either died from the virus or were killed to prevent further spread in the U.S.
“We try to make them the happiest as possible. We always say a happy chicken is a tasty chicken,” owner of Eden Farms Adam Shumate said.
With their happiness in mid, Shumate also wants to keep his chickens alive and healthy. On his farm in Clover, he has implemented protocols to minimize a potential bird flu outbreak.
“We want to be prepared,” he said. “We feel like the things that we can do to prevent it first is the best case because we don’t want to start from scratch with a whole new flock.”
Because bird flu is commonly spread through bird droppings, Shumate is limiting the number of people coming into contact with his flocks. He says this would minimize the chances of someone walking onto the property with bird droppings on the bottoms of their shoes.
On top of monitoring the chickens closely, Shumate and his staff are constantly cleaning their equipment, including what they wear on their feet.
“We have specific shoes that are just for working with the flock and for when we are taking care of them,” Shumate said.
Other farmers, like Holly Burrell, haven’t let a visitor step foot near her hens in Gastonia for more than two years.
No visitors or outside cars are welcomed, and her chickens are separated in what she calls “tent cities.”
“We don’t want to do that because we want them to live their best life,” Burrell said in a 2022 interview with Queen City News.
Recently, health officials have detected bird flu in other animals like seals, squirrels and dolphins.
Earlier this month, bird flu was detected in one of the state’s dairy cow herds. While concerning, state health officials say the overall risk to the general public remains low.
“I’ve not heard of any cases, zero cases of people being affected by this virus associated with food consumption, milk consumption with egg consumption… any of these products we’re getting from farm animals is not really been associated with any human risk at this point,” said Dr. Michael Martin, director of the Veterinary Division at the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
As of March 28, at least 80 birds in North Carolina were detected with the virus. Back in York County, Shumate says it all starts with the individual farms.
“When it comes to wildlife and things that that, there is only so much that you can do is be observant,” Shumate said. “Keep a healthy flock that way they can find off the infections that may come about.”
Health
CFIA Monitoring for Avian Influenza in Canadian Dairy Cattle After US Discoveries – Morning Ag Clips –
From the field to your inbox, the Weekend Edition of the Morning Ag Clips features stories, trends, and unique perspectives from the farming community. This laid-back edition is great for anyone looking for a fun weekend read.
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