on tuesday, health minister christian dubé said quebec’s current stash of pfizer doses are reserved for people who received it as a first dose and teens who have yet to get theirs.
“so our preference, for now, is to give people their astra or their moderna when we have them,” he said.
he tweeted on wednesday the federal government’s incoming moderna shipment will allow those who received it as a first dose to move up their second appointments soon.
mary drapeau and her husband, who say they took astrazeneca in march because it was all that was available when they showed up to their appointment, are also hoping to take an mrna vaccine as a second dose.
“we determined after talking about it — our family had all had pfizer — that we would take the pfizer, and we presumed we could do so because minister dubé said many times we could do it,” she said.
drapeau explained she and her husband both have heart problems and would prefer not to receive a second dose of the astrazeneca shot because of rare complications, but that they’re worried the efficacy of their first dose will wean as they wait to become eligible for an mrna shot.
“it’s a catch-22, you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t,” she said.
even those who are eligible to move up appointments for second doses have run into roadblocks on the clic santé booking site, which the health ministry attributes to missing personal information. the confusion appears to have resulted in long lineups at walk-in clinics. the health ministry said it will expand services in some of those clinics as a result.