Canada’s vaccine efforts moving rapidly and on track: infectious disease expert

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — One infectious disease expert says Canada is moving quickly in the right direction when it comes to COVID-19 vaccine efforts.

As vaccination data show over 40 per cent of adults in Canada have received a first dose, Dr. Isaac Bogoch, infectious disease expert, says, we’ll likely see adults get the second dose sooner than we expect.

“Just watch. As we move through May and into June, we’re really going to keep this pace of vaccination [of] more people were getting the first dose. Also we’ll likely start to see people getting their second doses before the four-month mark.”

Many health officials locally and internationally have said herd immunity will help prevent the spread of the virus vastly. But, Bogoch says, “The one size fits all solution probably isn’t ideal.”

“I think this mythical concept of herd immunity was amazing. And I just don’t know if it will actually be achieved. That doesn’t mean we can’t do significant good,” he says.

“When you think about how transmissible the variants are, when you think about mobile populations both within Canada, of course, with international travellers, we’ll likely see increased moving throughout the year.”

However, Bogoch says the concepts can benefit the healthcare system by helping it avoid overcapacity.

Bogoch says while we may not eliminate the virus, we can certainly ensure that this virus doesn’t impact Canada and Canadians to the same extent that it did in the last year and a half.

“This vaccine will help us return to normalcy, eventually. There will be a day where we will be able to gather in outdoor settings and indoor settings with larger and larger groups. There will be a day where mask mandates will be lifted. There will be a day where we’ll get 10s of 1000s of people together in stadiums for music and sporting events, like that’s going to happen.”

Numbers from Our World in Data show that Canada vaccinated over 400,000 people on Friday.