“Don’t go shopping for vaccines”: Saskatchewan.Doctors urge residents to vaccinate

Regina-In Saskatchewan, residents are hesitant to get AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, while one Regina doctor advises people to take one of the vaccines offered.

“If you are not vaccinated now and have an option [to] Get AstraZeneca now or wait two weeks for Pfizer and don’t hesitate to get the first of what we can offer, “Regina’s infectious disease specialist Dr. Alex Wong told CTV News on Monday. It was.

“If you get infected with COVID, it’s literally the difference between staying at home with a snuff and being in the ICU or box.”

Regina’s Lorna Fret was worried about getting the COVID-19 vaccine, but even more worried about getting AstraZeneca.

“I really didn’t know how my body responded to the shot,” she said.

Fret received the vaccine at Gathering Place on March 19th. She said she felt better almost a month after her first dose, outside of her arm pain.

“I said I had to give a kind of power through it and do this for my family and everyone else around me,” Fret said.

Currently, three vaccines are available in Saskatchewan: Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca.

Shots from Pfizer and Moderna have been reported to be 95% effective in preventing the symptoms of COVID-19, while AstraZeneca has been shown to be 70-76% effective.

“The main similarity between all these vaccines is that if you get infected with COVID-19, you do the perfect job of preventing serious illness, hospitalization and death, basically like 100% of the job,” Wong said. The doctor said.

According to reports from Europe, the AstraZeneca vaccine is associated with the potential for developing blood clots.

As of March 31, the European Medicines Agency identified 62 intracerebral thrombi (44 of which were in Europe) in 9.2 million doses of AstraZeneca administered.

In France, 12 out of 1.9 million doses and 4 people died, and in Norway, 5 and 3 out of 120,000 doses died.

The UK, which receives AstraZeneca more than any other country, reported 30 cases as of Saturday, including 7 deaths in a total of 18.1 million doses.

The French Pharmaceutical Agency described the blood clots found in a small number of people vaccinated with AstraZeneca as “very atypical.”

Dr. Wong said it was 1 in 100,000 likely to happen.

“Overview, if you fly from Toronto to Vancouver, it’s about a four-hour flight, and the chances of getting a blood clot from something like that are about one in 4,500,” he said.

At the doctor’s city hall last Thursday, According to the Saskatchewan Department of Health, there are no reports of blood clots occurring in Canada, with a high risk of developing blood clots due to the COVID-19 virus in 20% of hospitalized patients and 1-2% for “uncomplicated COVID”. I will. Infection”.

Health Minister Paul Merriman encourages people to verify the information received from social media regarding the AstraZeneca vaccine.

“Talk to your doctor, talk to your pharmacist, and talk to your healthcare professional as everything about AstraZeneca and vaccines is safe,” he said.

The National Advisory Committee on the Vaccinations (NACI) initially recommended that people over the age of 65 not use AstraZeneca. Dr. Wong said it was initially due to lack of data for that age group.

NACI currently recommends the vaccine only for people over the age of 55. Dr. Wong said the risk of serious illness and death from COVID-19 is higher in people over the age of 55 than in developing blood clots, so the risks and benefits need to be balanced. However, the risk is narrower in the younger age group.

“As you get older, that benefit / risk portion goes even further and you become a father towards the vaccine, but if you are 20, you can become seriously ill and die as a result of COVID. Is still low. In such situations, the balance between benefits and risks becomes more difficult when thinking about these blood clots, “he said.

Saskatchewan currently has about 20,000 AstraZeneca vaccines as of Monday.

Merriman looks forward to further guidance from NACI on the age eligibility of the AstraZeneca vaccine on Tuesday.

Using files from Paul Ricard of AgenceFrance-Presse.