Experts call for strategic targeting of second vaccine doses to stave off new COVID-19 variant
A risk assessment conducted in Britain, where the Delta variant is a few weeks further ahead relative to Canada, reported preliminary evidence that infections owing to the variant are more severe, leading to increased hospitalizations in some regions, though that trend has not yet been confirmed.
Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott said Thursday the province’s vaccine task force is looking to extend eligibility for second doses to all age groups “to make sure that anybody who wants to receive the second vaccine can get one as quickly as possible.” “We estimate Delta has about the same advantage over Alpha as Alpha had over the earlier type,” said Troy Day, a computational biologist at Queen’s University. That would mean Delta is more than twice as transmissible as the version of the coronavirus that was prevalent in Canada through the summer and fall of 2020.
The forecasts include estimates similar to a British-based study that found the Delta variant reduced the effectiveness of the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines to just 33.5 per cent after one dose. Sarah Otto, a theoretical biologist at the University of British Columbia, said that number should be viewed with caution because the study may have captured some individuals for whom the first dose had not yet generated its highest possible immune response.
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