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Experts question Trudeau’s strung-out vaccine strategy


 Trudeau is obviously thinking he’s smarter than the scientists in all those journals and laboratories, writes Bonokoski

 

Evidence is mounting fast that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is playing Crazy 8s with a euchre deck and using millions of Canadians as guinea pigs by moving the second COVID-19 vaccine back by four months.

 

The primary manufacturers of the vaccines — Pfizer and Moderna — say 21-to-28-days is the maximum wait, not a full third of a year.

 

 But Trudeau, described by veteran CBC journalist Neil MacDonald as being “cynical, patronizing, condescending, arrogant, and insulting,” is tossing caution to the wind to get as many first jabs in as possible and then see who remain breathing without the assistance of a ventilator.

 


 

In a column this week, the Financial Post’s Diane Francis cited an editorial in the British Medical Journal that said putting off second vaccinations beyond their 21-day efficiency period—as is being done in Great Britain and Canada—is a too cavalier a rolling of the dice.

 

“Concerns remain about effectiveness in older adults,” wrote the editorialists, noting the “deviation” from the recommended protocol of 21 days between doses was intended to maximize benefit with limited supplies and to minimize hospital admissions and deaths.

 

The World Health Organization, despite a now- tainted reputation, also threw shade on the dosage delay strategy by Britain and Canada, “urging the vaccine doses be given 21 to 28 days apart.”

 

The U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said months ago that people could wait up to 42 days between doses, if necessary, though the agency still advises individuals to stick to the initial schedule because otherwise they’d be pressing their luck.

 

Trudeau is obviously thinking he’s smarter than the scientists in all those journals and laboratories.

 

“The first dose primes immunological memory, and the second dose solidifies it,” reads an article in the Scientific American, citing Thomas Denny of the Duke Human Vaccine Institute.
The first dose of the Pfizer vaccine reduces infections by about 50% and Moderna’s jab reduces it by around 80%, but both shots offer 95% protection after the second injection.

 

That second shot, delivered in the recommended 21 days, is therefore vital if this pandemic is to ever be brought to its knees.

 

Right now, Trudeau is playing an ‘experimental” game with it, but the virus and its variants are winning, Over a year in, and we’re in another lockdown and stay-at-home order. Infections have spiked dramatically, and ICUs are filling up with younger patients.

 

“The virus is going to evolve in response to antibodies, irrespective of how we administer vaccines,” Paul Bieniasz, a retro-virologist at the Rockefeller University told Scientific American. “The question is: would we be accelerating that evolution by creating country-sized populations of individuals with only partial immunity?”.

 

 

“It’s amazing,” said Francis, “how the Canadian government has bucked the advice of so many other health agencies and medical journals, in its attempt to mitigate the damage done by the

 

Liberals’ failure to procure enough life-saving vaccines for the Canadian public in time."

 

Exactly.

 

“We still have not achieved job one, which is to give at least a single dose of protection to those highest-risk individuals,” said Danuta Skowronski of the B.C. Centre for Disease Control. “When we’ve done that, then let’s talk about timing of second dose, which I remain open to adjusting.”

 

She also said that as Canada’s vaccine supply finally gets up to speed, provinces should feel it’s alright to start thinking about shortening the interval between jabs.

 

When that will happen is that famous $64,000 question.

 

Ask Godot when he shows up.

 

markbonokoski@gmail.com

 

 

Source: Toronto Sun

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