Dr. Barry Dworkin

With all that has happened with miscommunication and damage to confidence, if you want to make people suspicious of your decision Health Canada, this is the way to do it.

Medical Mythbusting Commentary for May 29, 2021

[display_podcast]

Source:
Health Canada extends the expiry date of the AstraZeneca vaccine. It would be helpful if they released all the data to help health care providers explain the rationale to the public.

Related posts:

  1. AZ vaccine to be made available for everyone over 40 years of age. Fear understandable with media reporting on extremely rare blood clots but not mentioning lives saved from vaccine. Risk of harm from Covid infection causing clots is far greater.
  2. Confidence in AZ vaccine growing in Canada according to poll. Many possible reasons including fear of disease, trusted advice, individual stories and experiences, and seeing friends and family being vaccinated without incident among other factors.
  3. Risk calculus and interpretation changing in Ontario. Public Health recommends suspending first dose of AZ vaccine pending further data analysis. Outcome even if in favour of resumption will not change the erosion of public confidence.
  4. Short-lived common side effects including fever, chills, pain, and headache after mixing AZ with Pfizer vaccine reported in @TheLancet. Immunogenicity results to be reported in June and if mixing is a viable option (likely but assumption needs evidence).