Dr. Teresa Tam “Emotional”, Thanks for Coronavirus Vaccination Rate-National

Canada’s best public health officer was a Stoic model until the first year of COVID-19, Dr. Teresatum I was still a little suffocated when the first Canadian was vaccinated last week COVID-19 (new coronavirus infection) (# If there is no character limit, add parentheses when it first appears vaccine..

“It was pretty emotional,” Tam said in an interview looking back on the year many people want to forget.

“I think everyone was impressed with those images.”

Only 355 days after Tam saw the first email in Wuhan, China, warning of a pneumonia cluster of unknown origin. Within a week, these infections are associated with the new coronavirus and cause what is now known as COVID-19.

In a year-end interview with The Canadian Press, Tam said he was in awe of the world’s ability to develop, test, manufacture, ship and inject vaccines in less than a year.

“It has never been seen in the history of public health,” she said. “So, by itself, I think it’s emotional in terms of how wonderful the scientific achievement was.”

When vaccine development efforts went smoothly last spring, most experts warned that if you were lucky, it would take a year to 18 months to get ready. Instead, large investments from the government and private sector have advanced the development, testing and review process at an alarming rate.

In Canada, more than 200,000 people will be vaccinated by the end of 2020, 3 million by the end of March, and most Canadians who want the vaccine by the end of September.

Dr. Supriya Sharma, Health Canada’s Chief Medical Advisor, said very early on that Health Canada began talking to regulators in other countries about all standards.

“The answer was no,” Sharma said.

International regulators have worked “really, really quickly” to harmonize standards and inform companies of what is expected of vaccines. Health Canada has adjusted the rules so that the initial review is in progress rather than in progress for the final trial. The review team was expanded, working seven days a week, and companies kept experts on standby to answer questions.

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This paved the way for Health Canada to complete a review of Pfizer-Bio N-Tech vaccine candidates just five days after receiving the final document from Pfizer. Moderna, who was scheduled to submit the final document on Friday, is expected to follow a similar schedule. These two vaccines alone should bring Canada enough to vaccinate 30 million people next year.

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Canada identified several promising vaccines as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau learned the lesson last week when there were not enough personal protective equipment for frontline workers when the pandemic began. He told Canada Press that he worked fast to pre-purchase.

“One of the things we told ourselves in April and May was that we never had to experience it again.

Canada was able to adapt its domestic factories to start manufacturing ventilators, face masks and hand sanitizers very quickly. Vaccine development and capacity building development will take much longer. This is one of the gap holes in Canada’s preparations revealed by COVID-19, and in some other countries the entire population will be vaccinated a little earlier.

In the United States, which has invested at least US $ 18 billion in vaccine development and procurement through the Warpspeed Operation Program, there are multiple vaccine manufacturers, most of the 328 million people a few months before Canada’s promise You may get enough doses to inoculate. Immunize a population of 38 million.

Tam calls this a “century pandemic,” and while there are many lessons that can help guide future pandemic plans, all viruses are different. She was surprised by the December email warning. Because they were very similar to the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003.

However, unlike SARS, which has a mortality rate of more than 10%, COVID-19 is mild in most patients and proves to be infectious before symptoms appear, allowing it to spread faster and more widely. ..

The initial advice that asymptomatic people do not need to wear a mask turned out to be wrong. Tam gets a little bristle when asked about it.

“Try setting a record again,” she says. People with symptoms were always told to wear a mask. As soon as there was evidence that the virus was spreading from asymptomatic people, the advice began to change.

Canada also made mistakes, primarily focusing on travelers who were staying in China early. According to Tam, genetic follow-up of the virus indicates that most of the cases prevalent in Canada are due to people from Europe and the United States.

Still, she says, the steps taken to close the US-Canada border to this pandemic, a major blockade, and a non-essential trip were not in the guide.

“When did you see this in the history of the world?” Tam says. “When did you limit the Canadian-US border? It’s really pretty extraordinary time and action.”

Vaccinations represent hope for Tam, but keeping her at night is a fear that enough people will not be vaccinated. She said that telling the success of the vaccine so far, talking about the people who received the vaccine, and encouraging people to look for reliable information about the vaccine will be a major focus as 2021 begins. I will. She said she felt very optimistic that 2021 would improve.

Trudeau in November summarized the feelings of many when he said he was living a pandemic “sucking” life. In a year-end interview with The Canadian Press last week, he said it would only be a few months away if we could hold on a little longer, follow public health advice, and trust science to get the vaccine.

: Vaccines will allow us to overcome this long and difficult winter into a spring when things get better, and a summer when things get much better, “he said.

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