dr. steini brown, the co-chair of ontario’s covid-19 science advisory table, released modelling last week on the expected course of the virus. it showed vaccines will drive the cases down and more vaccines will do so more quickly, but he said public health measures are essential to the fight.
“public health measures make a significant difference and have already made a significant difference,” he said. “more vaccines, if possible, help significantly with the duration of this wave and the overall trajectory in the long run.”
dr. zain chagla, an infectious disease physician and associate professor at mcmaster university, said just having vaccines isn’t enough, they have to be focused on specific groups.
“the implementation of the vaccine strategy actually probably defines whether or not you could use it to interrupt transmission and vaccinate your way out of a wave.”
he said in ontario’s case that would have required diverting vaccines from elderly populations, who are at severe risk from the disease, to those most likely to spread it in their communities. but that would have left the elderly at more risk of more serious outcomes for longer.
“they would have been, unfortunately hospitalized more, died more, with these variants probably, overwhelmed the health-care system more.”