Ontario will make an announcement on the expansion of the fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine

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With the seventh wave of the pandemic growing, Ontario’s chief medical officer is scheduled to give a rare public update on Wednesday for an announcement about expanding access to the fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

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There have been growing calls for the province to do so. But it is not clear whether access will be expanded to include all adults, as in Quebec, or to health workers and others who are highly vulnerable.

In Ontario, only people age 60 and older, people living in congregate care, some people with compromised immune systems, and First Nations, Inuit, and Métis people and members of their household are currently eligible. for the second booster dose, the fourth dose since the COVID-19 vaccines were launched. first available.

In Quebec and Nunavut, boosters are available to adults age 18 and older, based on the date of their last injections. Other provinces have made them available to some people.

The current wave, fueled by the highly transmissible BA.5 Omicron subvariant, hit Ontario just as hospitals were facing crisis-level staffing shortages and some were forced to close emergency departments. Outbreaks of COVID-19 in hospitals have the potential to worsen the crisis.

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Ottawa physician Dr. Nili Kaplan-Myrth says there is no reason not to offer a second booster dose to the general population. She had been planning to take legal action against the Ontario government to push for greater access to second booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines. She said the action would likely continue if access was only expanded to a limited extent.

“We have a huge supply of vaccines, thousands of doses are being thrown away, and we are simply asking for the right of patients to consent to receive their fourth dose now, before they are re-infected,” he said.

Kaplan-Myrth says the inability to access booster shots disproportionately affects the poorest people and puts those who are frequently exposed due to work, transportation or family circumstances at high risk.

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Omicron’s now-dominant BA.5 subvariant is the most contagious yet and is more likely to evade earlier immunity by reinfecting people who had COVID-19 just weeks earlier, in some cases.

Kaplan-Myrth has raised more than $10,000 through GoFundMe for the legal fight, money she says she’d rather return and have the province take the plunge.

But not everyone thinks the fourth dose should be widely distributed right now. Some argue that it doesn’t make sense for people who aren’t at high risk and that it would be better to wait until the fall.

Dr. Lisa Barrett, a Halifax-based infectious disease specialist, argued on Twitter that there was an “excellent immunological rationale” for waiting until early fall to receive an additional dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, especially for those under the age of 65 years who have no additional reason to do so. an extra dose

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“If you expect the peak of the virus to be 3 months from now and you boost it now, your response will drop and restarting too quickly will likely give a suboptimal response at the peak time of the virus. Use other tools right now to add protection,” Barrett wrote.

Others argue strongly that people should get a boost now if they can.

Ottawa epidemiologist Raywat Deonandan thinks people should get the vaccine that’s here as cases rise.

“There is no guarantee that the much-vaunted bivalent injection will be available to us in any appreciable volume in the fall, while existing vaccine doses are here with us now. I say every adult should get a second booster,” she said.

The bivalent is a vaccine under development that includes specific protection against the Omicron variant.

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But the most compelling argument for at least expanding second doses to healthcare workers is the growing number of outbreaks, even in hospitals, right now, at a time when hospitals are under extraordinary stress.

In an earlier statement, a spokesman for the Ministry of Health said it was reviewing the latest guidance from the National Advisory Council on Immunization (NACI) and “will provide details on booster vaccinations in the coming weeks”.

However, the latest NACI guidance calls for booster shots in the fall, not the summer.

Medical Director of Health Kieran Moore said in recent days that high vaccination rates, immunity from previous infections, and the availability of effective treatments like Paxlovid, combined with what has been seen in other jurisdictions, mean Ontario is not it should be as affected during the current wave as it was in some past waves.

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With hospitals under extraordinary pressure, even a small spike in COVID cases could make things difficult this summer. In Ottawa, hospitalizations and outbreaks, including in hospitals, are on the rise.

Kaplan-Myrth said that between now and October, people would be reinfected with COVID-19 and would no longer have protection from their first booster if they had it more than five months ago.

“Having a booster now will give you that degree of protection until the fall, which means you have less of a chance of ending up in the hospital.”

Moore is also expected to speak about rapid antigen tests during a news conference Wednesday morning at Queen’s Park in Toronto.