The first doses of the most up-to-date vaccine for COVID-19 will start arriving in Canada next week after Health Canada gave the green light to the Pfizer-BioNTech booster shot on Friday.
Dr. Supriya Sharma, the chief medical adviser, said the combination vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech that targets both the original coronavirus and the BA.4 and BA.5 strains of Omicron can now be offered to Canadians who at least 12 years old.
This shot was authorized through a process similar to the one used for annual flu shots, which meant the approval could come much quicker. Sharma said the vaccine has already been given to nearly five million Americans and no safety signals have arisen. Given the slowing uptake of boosters in Canada, 11 million doses will likely be more than enough to give a booster to those who want one.
A Moderna booster approved five weeks ago targets the original virus and the first strain of the Omicron variant. The original vaccines authorized almost a year ago now were very good at preventing infection but Omicron threw a big wrench into that. While the vaccines remained excellent at preventing serious illness and hospitalization, they stopped being very good at preventing people from getting infected.
Dr. Howard Njoo, the deputy chief public health officer, said while the updated combination Omicron vaccines are good, people who recently got a booster using one of the original vaccines need not worry that they can’t get an Omicron booster for another three to six months.
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