Shopping for Preferred Vaccines

"Literally, people are shopping for vaccine. It makes doctors feel like we're used car salesmen. I have never encountered anything like this before."

"It's like buying tickets to a rock concert. People keep trying to get better seats."

"There are anti-vaxxers, but this is a different thing. No one had ever asked me before about the manufacturer of a vaccine."

"This is people taking misinformation and using it as an excuse to shop around. People are being entitled and privileged. The right thing to do is to take whatever is offered to  you. It's boomers being privileged."

"Let people who have no other options take the Pfizer. You take the AstraZeneca. They are both proven to prevent severe illness from COVID."

"People think they can pick and choose. They're just doing what suits them. It's demoralizing."

Dr.Nili Kaplan-Myrth, family practise, Glebe, Ottawa, Ontario

 

"People have looked a the risks, but not the benefits. This [AstraZeneca] vaccine gives 100 percent protection against severe disease and death."

"One hundred percent I would recommend this vaccine."

"This is the time to step up and be super-clear that we have to do this now."

Dr.Elizabeth Muggah, president, Ontario College of Family Physicians

The Province of Ontario is in deep trouble, deeply engulfed in a full-scale, third-phase epidemic of massive numbers of daily new COVID cases, each day the numbers creeping higher with no signs on the horizon of relief. Experts are suggesting that those numbers will continue to rise and then escalate. No longer is there hope for control as the medical community and the provincial government work to inoculate as much of the population as is possible in the face of vaccine supply uncertainties and the growing incidence of more infectious mutations of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Throw in a growing hesitation of people willing to be vaccinated even while area hospitals are being overburdened with daily new hospitalizations and serious cases requiring intensive care have swamped the ability of hospital authorities to find room for them, with lack of beds and attending medical personnel shortages. Yet, even in the face of this dire and steadily worsening situation, people fail to appear for their scheduled vaccination appointments and vaccines, already in short supply, are going to waste.

"I've heard about this. It's a big deal. In the short term, it's holding us back in terms of vaccine coverage. Longer term, it's not going to be an issue, as we will have increasing amounts of mRNA vaccine", commented David Fisman, professor of epidemiology at Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto. In the meanwhile, until partial-to-full vaccine coverage can be achieved, people are falling ill, people are dying, Ontario finds itself in the unenviable position of overtaking the U.S. in terms of COVID cases per million population.

Dr.Kaplan-Myrth is beside herself with frustration. In her practise she was able to procure 200 doses of Astra-Zeneca vaccine, gearing up to begin administering it to her patients, but those patients have been reluctant to take the vaccine. Some say outright they have no intention of taking the vaccine they don't want. AstraZeneca's 'reputation' has suffered in the wake of reports of rare blood clotting events. These are patients willing to wait until Pfizer's vaccine becomes available. Of the 200 doses, she was able only to book 39 doses, having personally called patients, and finally opening the offer to the general public on Twitter.

"To best protect yourself and others, we agree that the best COVID-19 vaccine is the one that reaches your arm first", the Ontario College of Family Physicians posted message reads, in an effort to persuade the public not to wait for a "preferred" vaccine, with the warning that waiting increases the risk of being infected with COVID-19. The Bruyere Family Health Team of which Dr.Muggah is a member, received 600 doses of AstraZeneca, sent out email alerts to patients. Appointments were booked and they plan to administer the vaccines in the hope that people will actually show up.

Matthew Chow has reached out personally by phone to 200 people on a client list, working as a pharmacist in the emergency department of Toronto General Hospital, volunteering to administer vaccines. Of the 200 people he reached on the list, only a dozen agreed to book an appointment for AsraZeneca's vaccine. "And some required a bit of prodding", he said. He notes that his brother, also a pharmacist but in Scarborough, a less affluent area and a COVID hotspot, has been able to fill slots for the AstraZeneca vaccine with no problem, characterizing it as a socioeconomic divide.

A Quebec woman over 55 had developed clots following the Covishield vaccine dose she received, produced by the Serum Institute of India on contract with AstraZeneca for a biologically identical version. She is now recovering at home. Dr.Supriya Sharma, Health Canada chief medical adviser speaks of an extremely low risk of developing blood clots for some patients, while at the same time,     COVID-19 risks for clots are far more significant. "Get whatever vaccine is available to you. It's that simple", she advised. 

"My friends, we are losing the battle between the variant and the vaccine", a worried Premier Doug Ford advised. "Our hospitals can no longer function normally. They are bursting at the seams. We are setting up field hospitals. Our children's hospitals are admitting adults. This has never happened in Ontario before. It's never happened in Canada before", explained Adalsteinn Brown, co-chair of Ontario's COVID-19 science advisory table, reflecting on the number of ICU patients flooding hospitals.

Ontario's hospital intensive care units had 421 patients critically ill with COVID-19 as of Tuesday, more than at the worst point of the pandemic's second wave. (Sam Nar/CBC)