u.k. bets big on the astrazeneca vaccine canada has shunned

by: ryan tumiltyottawa – while provinces across canada allow astrazeneca doses to sit unused, the united kingdom is pushing ahead with the vaccine and in the process becoming a world leader in covid-19 vaccinations.britain views the rare blood clots from astrazeneca as a risk worth taking in the fight against covid and has been aggressive in its rollout of the vaccine as opposed to canada.earlier this month, prior to his removal from the position leading canada’s vaccine rollout, maj.-gen. dany fortin said canada had between 250,000 and 270,000 astrazeneca doses expiring in june. brig.-gen. krista brodie, who took over for fortin, said on thursday that few doses in canadian stockpiles were close to expiry.“at this point, we’re tracking a very small number of doses that will expire at the end of may, and we’re working actively with the provinces to ensure that they can be used.”she also said provinces had asked ottawa to hold onto 100,000 doses of the most recent shipment, but stressed that shipment of 655,000 doses had expiry dates in late august. health canada could not provide greater clarity on the expiring doses before press time.ontario announced friday that it would begin using the vaccine to give people their second dose of the shot, but not all provinces have made the same decision yet. there are now thousands of doses in provincial storage with the clock ticking down toward expiry dates.the united kingdom is one of the leading countries in the world when it comes to vaccinations having given at least one jab to 56 per cent of the population and fully vaccinating 32 per cent of residents.the workhorse of the u.k.’s effort has been astrazeneca, which was developed in england at oxford university. as of may 12, the u.k estimated it had given out 23.9 million doses of astrazeneca as a first dose and nine million second doses.the u.k. was among the first countries in the world to approve astrazeneca and dispersed millions of doses before the rest of the world had even approved the vaccine. the second most used shot in the u.k, pfizer, has been used only half as much with 11.7 million people getting it as a first dose and 9.9 million receiving a second. the country only recently began to receive any moderna vaccines and has handed out around 200,000 doses.dr. june raine, chief executive of the u.k.’s medicines and healthcare products regulatory agency, which approves vaccines, addressed the issue of the rare blood clots in late april and said they view it as worth the risk.“the benefits of the astrazeneca vaccine against covid-19 with the associated risks of hospitalization and death, continue to outweigh the risks of the vaccine for the vast majority of people,” she said to british reporters.the u.k. has seen about 250 cases of the rare blood clots that have been associated with the astrazeneca vaccine. with the number of vaccines it has distributed, the risk of the rare clots is roughly one in 100,000 in first doses. in second doses, the clots have been seen only a handful of times at a rate of roughly one in a million. those rates compare roughly to what canada has seen when it comes to the complications.

raine said the key was that the rare, potentially deadly clots were being identified allowing health authorities to treat them and learn from them.“our safety monitoring systems are working and working effectively, these extremely rare side effects have been identified and analyzed by the best of scientific minds and enabled us to provide scientifically based up-to-date information and advice,” she said.the u.k. has recommended that people under 40, who may be at higher risk of the clots, to consider their choices and possibly consider waiting for a pfizer vaccine, but she stressed the vaccine is safer than the risk of covid.“the balance of benefits and risks of the vaccine is very favourable for older age groups, but it is more finely balanced for younger people, and so we advise that this evidence should be taken into account when considering the use of the vaccine,” she said.dr. shelley deeks, co-chair of canada’s national advisory council on immunization (naci), a volunteer advisory group that makes recommendations on vaccine use, put the issue differently when she addressed it, saying canadians who could wait for an mrna vaccine should wait.“what we’re saying and what we’ve said all along is that mrna vaccines are the preferred vaccine,” she said.naci and other health officials have since stressed that people who got astrazeneca made the right decision to keep themselves safe, but provinces have still stopped using the vaccine for first doses.dr. zain chagla, an infectious disease expert and associate professor at mcmaster university, said part of the reason for the difference is risk tolerance, but the u.k. was also in a much different place when it started using astrazeneca.‘the u.k. did not have a great supply of the pfizer vaccine and so, given the decision to vaccinate your population versus a very prolonged vaccine rollout with a pretty significant wave that they had in january, 2020 they pushed forward with astrazeneca.”britain was seeing nearly 60,000 cases a day in early january and even with a recent rise there, it is now seeing under 3,000 with hospital occupancy at its lowest level since september. canada’s worst peaks in early january and again in may were around 8,000 cases.britain with 66 million residents recorded more than 128,000 covid deaths, compared to canada’s 25,000 deaths among 38 million people.chagla said even from their initial approval of the vaccine the u.k. looked at the science and decided to push ahead and it paid off as they avoided a third wave.“they were bold about it, but they should be congratulated on it. they followed the science and they pushed an aggressive campaign to get as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible.”research is underway on the possibility of mixing astrazeneca with a second dose of a different vaccine and other provinces could still give doses of the vaccine to people who received their first astrazeneca shot.chagla said the ultimate goal was to get as many people vaccinated as possible, but people were going to make the decision for themselves and in a free society they should have all the information about their choices.“if you were to put everything on a scale and add public good to it, it absolutely would make sense to continue to get as many vaccines to as many people as possible and finish their series,” he said. “but we live in an individual society with individual decision making and so this is part of the consequences.”chagla said whether canadian governments use astrazeneca or ship it to countries in desperate need, the key was to move fast.“that answer probably needs to come now, especially if doses are expiring at the end of the month. you really only have a two week window to get those doses into people.”• email: rtumilty@postmedia.com | twitter: ryantumilty