An international group of scientists is arguing the average person doesn’t need a COVID-19 booster yet, highlighting the intense scientific divide over the question.
Jae C. Hong/The Associated Press
With 85 per cent of its eligible population vaccinated against COVID-19, Canada ranks as one of the best-protected countries in the world. For people who have already received their shots, this is welcome news, but it comes with an important caveat: The Delta variant is now dominant across the country and is driving case numbers upward. With cold weather approaching and driving people indoors, and the potential for other variants on the horizon, scientists and health authorities have turned their attention to the question of who may need additional shots to bolster their defences against the virus – and when.
Here’s a closer look at the science – and ethics – of getting a third dose.
Who in Canada is eligible for an additional dose of COVID-19 vaccine?
Last week the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) updated its guidance on additional doses of COVID-19 vaccines based on evidence that people who are moderately or severely immunocompromised may not mount an adequate immune response even after being fully vaccinated. NACI recommends that moderately to severely immunocompromised people 12 and older who have not yet been immunized should receive three doses of an authorized mRNA vaccine. Those in this group who have already been vaccinated, including those who received a combination of different vaccines, should be offered an additional dose of an authorized mRNA vaccine, the committee advised. This is not the same as receiving a booster shot, which is intended to restore initially adequate protection that may have waned over time.
While provinces can be expected to follow NACI’s guidance, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec have already been offering additional doses – not only to the immunocompromised but also to people travelling to countries that do not currently recognize their primary vaccine series. Alberta and Ontario also offer third doses to people living in higher-risk facilities such as long-term care homes. Saskatchewan has approved third doses for travel requirements, while B.C. announced Monday it would soon send invitations for third doses to the severely immunocompromised.
Vaccine studies
COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness against infection,
as a percentage, based on two separate studies
Zoe COVID study (Britain)
Effectiveness across time
1 month after second dose
Pfizer-
BioNtech
5-6 months after second dose
1 month after second dose
AstraZeneca
5-6 months after second dose
CDC study (U.S.)
Current effectiveness (June through Aug. 2021)
vs. the Delta variant
Pfizer-
BioNtech
Janssen
(Johnson &
Johnson)
THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: zoe covid study; cdc
Vaccine studies
COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness against infection, as a percentage,
based on two separate studies
Zoe COVID study (Britain)
Effectiveness across time
1 month after second dose
Pfizer-
BioNtech
5-6 months after second dose
1 month after second dose
AstraZeneca
5-6 months after second dose
CDC study (U.S.)
Current effectiveness (June through Aug. 2021) vs. the Delta variant
Pfizer-
BioNtech
Janssen
(Johnson &
Johnson)
THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: zoe covid study; cdc
Vaccine studies
COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness against infection, as a percentage,
based on two separate studies
Zoe COVID study (Britain)
Effectiveness across time
1 month after second dose
Pfizer-
BioNtech
5-6 months after second dose
1 month after second dose
AstraZeneca
5-6 months after second dose
CDC study (U.S.)
Current effectiveness (June through Aug. 2021) vs. the Delta variant
Pfizer-
BioNtech
Janssen
(Johnson &
Johnson)
THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: zoe covid study; cdc
Which countries are currently giving third doses?
Israel was the first country to broadly offer third shots, making them available to people 60 and older in late July and quickly expanding eligibility to everyone 12 and older a month later. Hungary soon followed suit, offering them to the general population in early August.
Since then a number of other European countries, including France, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Ireland and Sweden, have begun to, or are set to, offer third doses to their more vulnerable populations. The U.K. is considering a fall booster campaign, beginning with more vulnerable populations, but has not yet announced its plans.
The United States intends to offer booster shots in the fall, pending authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and recommendation by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a group within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Individuals would become eligible 8 months after they received their second dose of an mRNA vaccine.The CDC currently only recommends an additional dose for moderately to severely immunocompromised people.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said boosters will likely be needed for Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot viral vector vaccine. The department is awaiting data expected in the coming weeks.
What does science say about the need for additional doses in the general population?
This is currently a matter of debate. While some countries are making additional doses available, citing evidence of waning immunity, many experts say the evidence does not yet support such a move. In a commentary published Monday in the medical journal The Lancet, an international team of authors, including some affiliated with the FDA, point out the ways that observation studies of COVID-19 cases and outcomes could be painting a misleading picture of immunity. While they agree that booster shots may eventually be required, they say it’s too soon to pursue such a measure in the general population, particularly while it’s clear that the world would benefit far more from getting those doses to the unvaccinated.
How well are vaccines holding up so far?
Data continues to show the benefits of vaccination now that the more transmissible Delta variant is the principal driver of the pandemic in North America. In a report issued Friday by the CDC, an analysis of data gathered in 13 jurisdictions showed that once Delta became the most common variant, individuals who were not fully vaccinated had about a five times greater chance of being infected and were 10 times more likely to end up in hospital or die of a COVID-19 infection. The large study was based on more than 600,000 cases between April and mid-July. And while Delta is generating breakthrough cases among the vaccinated, the vaccines are still proving to be very effective against severe disease and death.
How do I know how protected I am as an individual?
This question remains one of the hardest to answer. What’s missing is what immunologists call a “correlate of protection” – a measurable factor that can reveal whether someone’s immune system is above the threshold that would allow them to fight off an infection. If such a measurement could be made reliably, it would provide a shortcut to assessing and comparing vaccines, including those that are still in development.
For now, researchers have mainly been looking at antibodies in the blood of vaccine recipients to see how well they neutralize the virus. This approach can offer clues to the extent and duration of immunity that vaccines provide, but it cannot absolutely differentiate between vaccinated individuals who will develop COVID-19 and those who won’t if exposed to the virus – or when.
What do vaccine manufacturers say about protection levels as time passes?
An ongoing analysis by Pfizer-BioNTech has shown a decline in the efficacy of its vaccine against symptomatic infection – from 95 per cent after the first two months to about 80 per cent four to six months after the second dose. The company said a booster significantly increased levels of neutralizing antibodies and that this data will be submitted to Health Canada and other regulatory authorities.
Moderna similarly found that antibody levels waned about six months after vaccination and that a third shot of half the original dose boosted antibodies to levels even higher than after the initial shots across all age groups. The company has submitted its data to the FDA and the European Medicines Agency.
AstraZeneca says an extended interval of as long as 45 weeks between the first and second doses of its vaccine resulted in a sharp increase in antibody response – as much as 18-fold – measured 28 days after the second dose. A third dose given at least six months after the second boosted antibody levels sixfold and increased neutralizing activity against variants, including Delta.
What determines when boosters will be needed?
If the immunity afforded by vaccines indeed begins to wane after several months, then a booster shot may become advisable for vaccinated Canadians by that time. The confounding factor is the Delta variant, which is now affecting immunity levels everywhere at once. Separating its impact from a loss of immunity due to the passage of time is a challenge. Another variable is the type of vaccine administered; for example, a different CDC study released Friday showed that vaccine effectiveness against the Delta variant is higher for the Moderna shot (92 per cent) than for the vaccineproduced by Pfizer-BioNtech (77 per cent). This difference is echoed in antibody studies, including one by researchers at Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital. Bottom line: The jury is still out.
What are the ethical considerations of providing third and additional doses?
World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has called for a moratorium on booster shots until the end of the year, saying that while some at-risk populations may require additional doses, healthy, fully vaccinated people should not be receiving boosters. About 90 per cent of high-income countries have reached the WHO’s target of getting 10 per cent of population vaccinated, and 70 per cent have reached its 40-per-cent target, Dr. Tedros said. However, not a single low-income country has reached either target.
“Because manufacturers have prioritized, or been legally obliged, to fulfill bilateral deals with rich countries willing to pay top dollar, low-income countries have been deprived of the tools to protect their people,” he said at a news conference last week.
Kerry Bowman, a bioethicist at the University of Toronto, said Dr. Tedros’s call for a pause on booster shots is “very, very reasonable” and that vaccine supplies beyond what is required to adequately protect a population should go to lower-income countries.
“In the years ahead when the pandemic books are written, I think the greatest moral failure will be the global situation and how myopic many nations, including Canada, were during this pandemic,” Dr. Bowman said. “It’s an ethical problem and it’s an epidemiological problem.”
Our Morning Update and Evening Update newsletters are written by Globe editors, giving you a concise summary of the day’s most important headlines. Sign up today.
“Communication is one of the most important skills you require for a successful life.” — Catherine Pulsifer, author.
I’m one hundred percent in agreement with Pulsifer, which is why my evaluation of candidates begins with their writing skills. If a candidate’s writing skills and verbal communication skills, which I’ll assess when interviewing, aren’t well above average, I’ll pass on them regardless of their skills and experience.
Why?
Because business is fundamentally about getting other people to do things—getting employees to be productive, getting customers to buy your products or services, and getting vendors to agree to a counteroffer price. In business, as in life in general, you can’t make anything happen without effective communication; this is especially true when job searching when your writing is often an employer’s first impression of you.
Think of all the writing you engage in during a job search (resumes, cover letters, emails, texts) and all your other writing (LinkedIn profile, as well as posts and comments, blogs, articles, tweets, etc.) employers will read when they Google you to determine if you’re interview-worthy.
With so much of our communication today taking place via writing (email, text, collaboration platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Slack, ClickUp, WhatsApp and Rocket.Chat), the importance of proficient writing skills can’t be overstated.
When assessing a candidate’s writing skills, you probably think I’m looking for grammar and spelling errors. Although error-free writing is important—it shows professionalism and attention to detail—it’s not the primary reason I look at a candidate’s writing skills.
The way someone writes reveals how they think.
Clear writing = Clear thinking
Structured paragraphs = Structured mind
Impactful sentences = Impactful ideas
Effective writing isn’t about using sophisticated vocabulary. Hemingway demonstrated that deceptively simple, stripped-down prose can captivate readers. Effective writing takes intricate thoughts and presents them in a way that makes the reader think, “Damn! Why didn’t I see it that way?” A good writer is a dead giveaway for a good thinker. More than ever, the business world needs “good thinkers.”
Therefore, when I come across a candidate who’s a good writer, hence a good thinker, I know they’re likely to be able to write:
Emails that don’t get deleted immediately and are responded to
Simple, concise, and unambiguous instructions
Pitches that are likely to get read
Social media content that stops thumbs
Human-sounding website copy
Persuasively, while attuned to the reader’s possible sensitivities
Now, let’s talk about the elephant in the room: AI, which job seekers are using en masse. Earlier this year, I wrote that AI’s ability to hyper-increase an employee’s productivity—AI is still in its infancy; we’ve seen nothing yet—in certain professions, such as writing, sales and marketing, computer programming, office and admin, and customer service, makes it a “fewer employees needed” tool, which understandably greatly appeals to employers. In my opinion, the recent layoffs aren’t related to the economy; they’re due to employers adopting AI. Additionally, companies are trying to balance investing in AI with cost-cutting measures. CEOs who’ve previously said, “Our people are everything,” have arguably created today’s job market by obsessively focusing on AI to gain competitive advantages and reduce their largest expense, their payroll.
It wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that most AI usage involves generating written content, content that’s obvious to me, and likely to you as well, to have been written by AI. However, here’s the twist: I don’t particularly care.
Why?
Because the fundamental skill I’m looking for is the ability to organize thoughts and communicate effectively. What I care about is whether the candidate can take AI-generated content and transform it into something uniquely valuable. If they can, they’re demonstrating the skills of being a good thinker and communicator. It’s like being a great DJ; anyone can push play, but it takes skill to read a room and mix music that gets people pumped.
Using AI requires prompting effectively, which requires good writing skills to write clear and precise instructions that guide the AI to produce desired outcomes. Prompting AI effectively requires understanding structure, flow and impact. You need to know how to shape raw information, such as milestones throughout your career when you achieved quantitative results, into a compelling narrative.
So, what’s the best way to gain and enhance your writing skills? As with any skill, you’ve got to work at it.
Two rules guide my writing:
Use strong verbs and nouns instead of relying on adverbs, such as “She dashed to the store.” instead of “She ran quickly to the store.” or “He whispered to the child.” instead of “He spoke softly to the child.”
Avoid using long words when a shorter one will do, such as “use” instead of “utilize” or “ask” instead of “inquire.” As attention spans get shorter, I aim for clarity, simplicity and, most importantly, brevity in my writing.
Don’t just string words together; learn to organize your thoughts, think critically, and communicate clearly. Solid writing skills will significantly set you apart from your competition, giving you an advantage in your job search and career.
Nick Kossovan, a well-seasoned veteran of the corporate landscape, offers “unsweetened” job search advice. You can send Nick your questions to artoffindingwork@gmail.com.
MONTREAL – Politics, public opinion and salary hikes south of the border helped push Air Canada toward a deal that secures major pay gains for pilots, experts say.
Hammered out over the weekend, the would-be agreement includes a cumulative wage hike of nearly 42 per cent over four years — an enormous bump by historical standards — according to one source who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. The previous 10-year contract granted increases of just two per cent annually.
The federal government’s stated unwillingness to step in paved the way for a deal, noted John Gradek, after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made it plain the two sides should hash one out themselves.
“Public opinion basically pressed the federal cabinet, including the prime minister, to keep their hands clear of negotiations and looking at imposing a settlement,” said Gradek, who teaches aviation management at McGill University.
After late-night talks at a hotel near Toronto’s Pearson airport, the country’s biggest airline and the union representing 5,200-plus aviators announced early Sunday morning they had reached a tentative agreement, averting a strike that would have grounded flights and affected some 110,000 passengers daily.
The relative precariousness of the Liberal minority government as well as a push to appear more pro-labour underlay the prime minister’s hands-off approach to the negotiations.
Trudeau said Friday the government would not step in to fix the impasse — unlike during a massive railway work stoppage last month and a strike by WestJet mechanics over the Canada Day long weekend that workers claimed road roughshod over their constitutional right to collective bargaining. Trudeau said the government respects the right to strike and would only intervene if it became apparent no negotiated deal was possible.
“They felt that they really didn’t want to try for a third attempt at intervention and basically said, ‘Let’s let the airline decide how they want to deal with this one,'” said Gradek.
“Air Canada ran out of support as the week wore on, and by the time they got to Friday night, Saturday morning, there was nothing left for them to do but to basically try to get a deal set up and accepted by ALPA (Air Line Pilots Association).”
Trudeau’s government was also unlikely to consider back-to-work legislation after the NDP tore up its agreement to support the Liberal minority in Parliament, Gradek said. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, whose party has traditionally toed a more pro-business line, also said last week that Tories “stand with the pilots” and swore off “pre-empting” the negotiations.
Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau had asked Ottawa on Thursday to impose binding arbitration pre-emptively — “before any travel disruption starts” — if talks failed. Backed by business leaders, he’d hoped for an effective repeat of the Conservatives’ move to head off a strike in 2012 by legislating Air Canada pilots and ground crew to stick to their posts before any work stoppage could start.
The request may have fallen flat, however. Gradek said he believes there was less anxiety over the fallout from an airline strike than from the countrywide railway shutdown.
He also speculated that public frustration over thousands of cancelled flights would have flowed toward Air Canada rather than Ottawa, prompting the carrier to concede to a deal yielding “unheard of” gains for employees.
“It really was a total collapse of the Air Canada bargaining position,” he said.
Pilots are slated to vote in the coming weeks on the four-year contract.
Last year, pilots at Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and American Airlines secured agreements that included four-year pay boosts ranging from 34 per cent to 40 per cent, ramping up pressure on other carriers to raise wages.
After more than a year of bargaining, Air Canada put forward an offer in August centred around a 30 per cent wage hike over four years.
But the final deal, should union members approve it, grants a 26 per cent increase in the first year alone, retroactive to September 2023, according to the source. Three wage bumps of four per cent would follow in 2024 through 2026.
Passengers may wind up shouldering some of that financial load, one expert noted.
“At the end of the day, it’s all us consumers who are paying,” said Barry Prentice, who heads the University of Manitoba’s transport institute.
Higher fares may be mitigated by the persistence of budget carrier Flair Airlines and the rapid expansion of Porter Airlines — a growing Air Canada rival — as well as waning demand for leisure trips. Corporate travel also remains below pre-COVID-19 levels.
Air Canada said Sunday the tentative contract “recognizes the contributions and professionalism of Air Canada’s pilot group, while providing a framework for the future growth of the airline.”
The union issued a statement saying that, if ratified, the agreement will generate about $1.9 billion of additional value for Air Canada pilots over the course of the deal.
Meanwhile, labour tension with cabin crew looms on the horizon. Air Canada is poised to kick off negotiations with the union representing more than 10,000 flight attendants this year before the contract expires on March 31.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
HALIFAX – Ottawa is negotiating a $500-million bailout for Nova Scotia’s privately owned electric utility, saying the money will be used to prevent a big spike in electricity rates.
Federal Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson made the announcement today in Halifax, saying Nova Scotia Power Inc. needs the money to cover higher costs resulting from the delayed delivery of electricity from the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric plant in Labrador.
Wilkinson says that without the money, the subsidiary of Emera Inc. would have had to increase rates by 19 per cent over “the short term.”
Nova Scotia Power CEO Peter Gregg says the deal, once approved by the province’s energy regulator, will keep rate increases limited “to be around the rate of inflation,” as costs are spread over a number of years.
The utility helped pay for construction of an underwater transmission link between Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, but the Muskrat Falls project has not been consistent in delivering electricity over the past five years.
Those delays forced Nova Scotia Power to spend more on generating its own electricity.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
